Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Archaeologists discovered an enigmatic complex of rooms, interiors of which covered with figural scenes unique to Christian art

Archaeologists discovered an enigmatic complex of rooms, the interiors of which were covered with figural scenes unique to Christian art

Archaeologists discovered an enigmatic complex of rooms, the interiors of which were covered with figural scenes unique to Christian art

Archaeologists of the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw discovered an enigmatic complex of rooms made of sun-dried brick, the interiors of which were covered with figural scenes unique to Christian art.

The discovery was made at the Old Dongola medieval monastery on the banks of the Nile, more than 500 km north of Khartoum.

Old Dongola (Tungul in Old Nubian) was the capital of Makuria, one of the most prominent medieval African states. It had converted to Christianity by the end of the sixth century, but Egypt was conquered by Islamic armies in the seventh century.

An Arab army invaded in 651 but was repulsed, and the Baqt Treaty was signed, establishing relative peace between the two sides that lasted until the 13th century.

The discovery was made during the exploration of houses dating from the Funj period (16th-19th century CE). Within the main monastic complex, the Polish mission unearthed now a second, well-preserved church with vivid mural paintings and inscriptions in Greek and Old Nubian.

The scene with King David. Photo: Adrian Chlebowski

Surprisingly, beneath the floor of one of the houses was an opening leading to a small chamber with walls decorated with unique representations.

The paintings inside depicted the Mother of God, Christ, and a scene with a Nubian king, Christ, and Archangel Michael. This was not, however, a typical depiction of a Nubian ruler under the protection of saints or archangels.

The king bows and kisses the hand of Christ, who is seated in the clouds. The ruler is aided by Archangel Michael, whose spread wings protect both the king and Christ. Such a scene finds no parallels in Nubian painting.

The representation’s dynamism and intimacy contrast with the hieratic nature of the figures depicted on the side walls. Similarly, the figure of the Virgin Mary on the north wall of the chamber does not fit into the standard repertoire of Mary depictions in Nubian art.

The Mother of God is dressed in dark robes and strikes a dignified pose. She has a cross and a book in her hands. On the opposite wall, Christ is depicted. His right hand is shown in a blessing gesture, and his left hand is holding a book, which is only partially preserved.

Dr. Agata Deptua of PCMA UW is currently studying the inscriptions that accompany the paintings. A preliminary reading of the Greek inscriptions revealed that they were texts from the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

The main scene is accompanied by an inscription in Old Nubian that is extremely difficult to decipher. The researchers learned from a preliminary reading by Dr. Vincent van Gerven Oei that it contains several references to a king named David as well as a prayer to God for the protection of the city.

Restoration work on the wall paintings. Photo: Dawid Szymanski

The city mentioned in the inscription is most likely Dongola, and the royal figure depicted in the scene is most likely King David. David was one of Christian Makuria’s last rulers, and his reign signaled the beginning of the kingdom’s demise. For unknown reasons, King David attacked Egypt, which retaliated by invading Nubia, resulting in Dongola being sacked for the first time in its history.

Researchers think that the painting may have been made while the Mamluk army was approaching or the city was under siege.

The complex of rooms where the paintings were discovered, however, is what stumps people the most. The actual spaces, which are made of dried brick and covered in vaults and domes, are quite small. Although the painted room that depicts King David is seven meters above the medieval ground level, it looks like a crypt.

The structure is next to a sacred structure known as the Great Church of Jesus, which was likely Dongola’s cathedral and the most significant church in the Makurian kingdom.

According to Arab sources, the Great Church of Jesus instigated King David’s attack on Egypt and the capture of the ports of Aidhab and Aswan.

These and other inquiries about the enigmatic structure may be answered by further excavations. However, safeguarding the distinctive wall paintings was the main goal for this season. Following the discovery, conservators got to work under the supervision of Magdalena Skaryska, MA.

The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, the University of Warsaw, and the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw collaborated to operate the conservation team.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Roman girl adorned with 1800-year-old jewelry found in a lead coffin on Mount Scopus

Roman girl adorned with 1800-year-old jewelry found in a lead coffin on Mount Scopus

Roman girl adorned with 1800-year-old jewelry found in a lead coffin on Mount Scopus

“After the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the exodus of the Jewish population, late Roman Jerusalem—renamed Aelia Capitolina—had a mixed population. During this period, some young girls were buried and adorned with fine gold jewelry.

The jewelrys was discovered in a lead coffin on Mount Scopus during excavations led by late archaeologist Yael Adler of the Israel Department of Antiquities.

The find included gold earrings, a hairpin, a gold pendant, gold beads, carnelian beads, and a glass bead, according to the IAA.

The jewels were discovered in 1971, in an excavation carried out by Yael Adler (deceased) of the Israel Department of Antiquities but the finds were not published.

The jewels were recently located as part of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s “Publication of Past Excavations Project,” which aims to publish previously incomplete excavation reports.

Impressive gold jewelry discovered in previous excavations in Jerusalem burial caves will be on display for the first time to the public at the 48th Archaeological Congress, organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Exploration Society, and the Israel Archaeological Association.

The congress will take place at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, now inaugurated in Jerusalem.

“The location of the original reports that gathered dust over the years in the Israel Antiquities Authority archives, and physically tracing the whereabouts of the items themselves, has shed light on long-forgotten treasures,” says Dr. Ayelet Dayan, Head of the Archaeological Research Department, who heads this project. “The beautiful jewelry that we researched is an example of such treasures.”

Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Dr. Ayelet Dayan, Dr. Ayelet Gruber, and Dr. Yuval Baruch, believe that the priceless objects bearing the symbols of Luna, the Roman moon goddess, accompanied the girls during their lifetimes and were buried with them after they passed away to continue to protect them in the afterlife.

Their investigation revealed that Prof. Vassilios Tzaferis had found two pairs of identical gold earrings in a previous excavation on the Mount of Olives for the Department of Antiquities in 1975.

The finds, according to researchers, are from a time after Jerusalem had almost entirely been destroyed following the siege of 70 CE.

The pagan Roman deities Jupiter and others received special honors in Hadrian’s new city. At that time, Jews were forbidden from entering Jerusalem under penalty of death because the city was occupied by Roman legionaries.

“It seems that the girl was buried with an expensive set of gold jewelry that included earrings, a chain with a lunula pendant (named after the goddess Luna), and a hairpin,” say the researchers.

“These items of jewelry are known in the Roman world, and are characteristic of young girl burials, possibly providing evidence of the people who were buried at these sites,” the researchers said.

“Late Roman Jerusalem—renamed Aelia Capitolina—had a mixed population that reached the city after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the evacuation of the Jewish population.

People from different parts of the Roman Empire settled in the city, bringing with them a different set of values, beliefs, and rituals. The pagan cult of the city’s new population was rich and varied, including gods and goddesses, among them the cult of the moon goddess Luna.”

According to researchers, gold jewelry was used as an amulet against the evil eye by young pagan girls nearly 1,800 years ago. The jewelry was buried with the girls to continue protecting them in the afterlife.

“The interring of the jewelry together with the young girl is touching,” said IAA Director Eli Escusido. “One can imagine that their parents or relatives parted from the girl, either adorned with the jewelry or possibly lying by her side and thinking of the protection that the jewelry provided in the world to come.

This is a very human situation, and all can identify with the need to protect one’s offspring, whatever the culture or the period.”

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Researchers use 21st century methods to record 2,000 years of ancient graffiti in Egypt

Researchers use 21st-century methods to record 2,000 years of ancient graffiti in Egypt

Researchers use 21st-century methods to record 2,000 years of ancient graffiti in Egypt
SFU geography professor Nick Hedley. Photo Credit: Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University researchers are learning more about ancient graffiti—and their intriguing comparisons to modern graffiti—as they produce a state-of-the-art 3D recording of the Temple of Isis in Philae, Egypt.

Working with the University of Ottawa, the researchers published their early findings in Egyptian Archaeology and have returned to Philae to advance the project.

“It’s fascinating because there are similarities with today’s graffiti,” says SFU geography professor Nick Hedley, co-investigator of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded project.

“The iconic architecture of ancient Egypt was built by those in positions of power and wealth, but the graffiti records the voices and activities of everybody else. The building acts like a giant sponge or notepad for generations of people from different cultures for over 2,000 years.”

As an expert in spatial reality capture, Hedley leads the team’s innovative visualization efforts, documenting the graffiti, their architectural context, and the spaces they are found in using advanced methods like photogrammetry, raking light, and laser scanning. “I’m recording reality in three-dimensions — the dimensionality in which it exists,” he explains.

Photo Credit: Simon Fraser University

With hundreds if not thousands of graffiti, some carved less than a millimeter deep on the temple’s columns, walls, and roof, precision is essential.

Typically, the graffiti would be recorded through a series of photographs — a step above hand-drawn documents — allowing researchers to take pieces of the site away and continue working.

Sabrina Higgins, an SFU archaeologist and project co-investigator, says photographs and two-dimensional plans do not allow the field site to be viewed as a dynamic, multi-layered, and evolving space.

“The techniques we are applying to the project will completely change how the graffiti, and the temple, can be studied,” she says.

Sabrina Higgins, SFU archaeologist and project co-investigator. Photo Credit: Simon Fraser University

Hedley is moving beyond basic two-dimensional imaging to create a cutting-edge three-dimensional recording of the temple’s entire surface.

This will allow the interior and exterior of the temple, and the graffiti, to be viewed and studied at otherwise impossible viewpoints, from virtually anywhere— without compromising detail.

This three-dimensional visualization will also enable researchers to study the relationship between a figural graffito, any graffiti that surrounds it, and its location in relation to the structure of temple architecture.

While this is transformative for viewing and studying the temple and its inscriptions, Hedley points to the big-picture potential of applying spatial reality capture technology to the field of archaeology, and beyond.

“Though my primary role in this project is to help build the definitive set of digital wall plans for the Mammisi at Philae, I’m also demonstrating how emerging spatial reality capture methods can fundamentally change how we gather and produce data and transform our ability to interpret and analyze these spaces. This is a space to watch!” says Hedley.

WORLD

Drug Use Detected in Hair Found in Mediterranean Island Cave

Drug Use Detected in Hair Found in Mediterranean Island Cave

Drug Use Detected in Hair Found in Mediterranean Island Cave
Hair strands found among a stash of objects in this cave on the island of Menorca have provided Europe’s oldest direct evidence of psychoactive drug use, dating to about 3,000 years ago.

Human hair recovered in a Mediterranean island cave has yielded Europe’s oldest direct evidence of people taking hallucinogenic drugs, researchers say.

By around 3,000 years ago, visitors at Es Càrritx cave on Menorca — perhaps shamans who performed spiritual and healing rituals — consumed plants containing mind-altering and vision-inducing substances, say archaeologist Elisa Guerra-Doce of the University of Valladolid in Spain and colleagues.

Signs of human activity at the cave, including more than 200 human graves arrayed in a chamber at the entrance, were previously dated to between around 3,600 and 2,800 years ago.

Researchers had also found a hoard of objects in a small pit within an inner cave chamber, including six wooden containers, each containing locks of human hair.

Chemical analyses of one container’s locks, possibly from more than one person, detected three psychoactive plant substances that had been ingested and absorbed into the hair over nearly a year, the scientists report on April 6 in Scientific Reports.

A chemical analysis of human hairs, shown here entangled with bits of animal bones after removal from a wooden container found in a Mediterranean island cave, revealed the presence of mind-bending plant substances.

Two substances, atropine, and scopolamine from nightshade plants, induce disorientation, hallucinations, and altered physical sensations. Another, ephedrine, boosts energy and alertness.

Shamans would have known how to handle and consume these potentially toxic plants safely, the investigators say.

Individuals intent on preserving ancient traditions hid hair and other ritually significant objects at Es Càrritx as Menorca’s growing population spurred social changes between 3,000 and 2,800 years ago, the researchers speculate.

Burial rituals included dyeing strands of hair on corpses a reddish color and later cutting off some locks to be put in containers left near graves.

Other hair analyses have found that Inca kids slated for sacrifice more than 500 years ago ingested hallucinogenic drinks and coca leaves and alcohol (SN: 5/13/22; SN: 7/29/13).  And a 2005 study found chemical signs of coca-leaf chewing in the hair of two human mummies from Chile dating to around 3,000 years ago. Indirect evidence of drug use in various parts of the world, such as artistic depictions, go back further.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Researchers Study Severed Hands Uncovered in Egypt

Researchers Study Severed Hands Uncovered in Egypt

Researchers Study Severed Hands Uncovered in Egypt
Severed hands found outside an ancient Egyptian palace confirm accounts of a trophy-taking custom called the “gold of honor.”

In 2011, archaeologists excavating a site in northern Egypt known as Tell el-Dab’a came across a grisly scene. As they probed a series of pits outside the city’s palace walls, 12 skeletal hands reached back at them.

The dismembered hands, researchers reported last week in Scientific Reports, are likely a cache of battlefield trophies—prizes lopped from enemies’ bodies and exchanged for gold in a ritual known as the “gold of honor.” Egyptian texts and wall carvings describe the custom, the researchers note, but these hands represent the first physical evidence of it.

“It’s very nice evidence,” says Isabelle Crevecoeur, a physical anthropologist at CNRS, the French national research agency, who was not involved with the study. “From the biological and anthropological evidence, there’s no doubt it was part of a ritual.”

The hands were dated to 1500 B.C.E., when Tell el-Dab’a was known as Avaris and briefly served as the capital of ancient Egypt. When Manfred Bietak, an archaeologist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences who has led digs at Tell el-Dab’a for decades, first saw the remains, he immediately thought of the trophy-taking ritual.

According to ancient accounts, Egyptian warriors presented the hands of slain enemies to the pharaoh, who rewarded them with gold necklaces or golden pendants in the shape of flies.

Some researchers had an alternative explanation: that the severed appendages represented a brutal punishment for criminals, perhaps thieves. There is no written or pictorial evidence of such punishments in ancient Egypt, however, and the new analysis of the Tell el-Dab’a hands supports the trophy-ritual hypothesis. For one, the hands were carefully cut from the arm. Any bones below the wrist had been removed, leaving just the hand and fingers.

“They were all prepared properly to look just like a hand should,” says German Archaeological Institute paleopathologist Julia Gresky, who led the study.

She and colleagues found no cutmarks on the bones, suggesting an almost surgical effort went into preparing them. That makes a convincing case for ritualistic amputation, not barbaric punishment, Crevecouer says. “No signs of cutting is a sign that they did it very carefully, not with an ax or something. It’s delicate work. That, for me, is a good argument they did it for a ritual.”

The care also suggests the hands were removed after death, not hacked from living prisoners. They were probably severed after rigor mortis–a tightening of the tendons in the hours after death–had passed, Gresky argues. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to cut the tendons connecting hand to arm without leaving marks on the bones.

After they were removed and modified, eight of the hands were placed carefully in a shallow pit, with several more hands laid into another pit less than 1 meter away. “If it was punishment, the hand would have just been thrown away,” Gresky says. “But they really took care with them and placed them nicely.” Located just in front of the city’s central palace, the pits would have been visible from the throne room, suggesting the pharaoh prized the hands—and supporting the notion that they were a war trophy, the researchers note.

Fingers are among the first parts of the body to decompose and fall apart, so finding intact hands suggests they were all deposited in a single event or ceremony, rather than one at a time. “Finding articulated bones means the deposits must have been made very quickly, and then protected,” Crevecoeur says. “The hand was still fleshy when it was buried–otherwise it would have fallen apart.”

The “gold of honor” ritual was probably introduced to Egypt by interlopers known as the Hyksos, Bietak says. These invaders–who perhaps came from the eastern Mediterranean–conquered Egypt around 1640 B.C.E. and controlled the region for about a century, ruling from Avaris. They introduced Egyptians to chariots and new types of weapons, such as slings and distinctive battleaxes.

Bietak thinks they also introduced the custom of taking enemies’ hands as trophies. Later in Egypt, the ritual appears to have become standard practice. Ahmose I, the pharaoh who eventually forced the last of the Hyksos out of Egypt, “had a heap of hands depicted on the wall of his temple at Abydos,” Bietak says.

The custom both honored the pharaoh and inflicted punishment beyond the grave. Since the ancient Egyptians believed one’s body had to be intact in order to pass into the next world, severing the right hand would have disfigured their enemies’ souls as well as their bodies, barring them from the afterlife.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Mysterious mosaics depicting Medusa uncovered at 2nd-century Roman villa

Mysterious mosaics depicting Medusa uncovered at 2nd-century Roman villa

Mysterious mosaics depicting Medusa uncovered at 2nd-century Roman villa
Restorers Maria Teresa and Roberto Civetta work on a mosaic at the Villa of the Antonines archaeological project, directed by Deborah Chatr Aryamontri and Timothy Renner of the Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies at Montclair State University.

While excavating a villa used by ancient Roman emperors in Italy, archaeologists uncovered something unexpected: two mosaics that depict the Greek mythological figure Medusa, whose hair was made of snakes and whose gaze was said could turn people into stone. 

The team found the mosaics in a circular room in the Villa of the Antonines, so called because it was used by members of the Antonine dynasty who ruled the Roman Empire from A.D. 138 to 193.

The mosaics likely date to the second century A.D. the researchers said at a presentation at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, which was held in New Orleans in January. 

In both mosaics, Medusa is looking off into the distance, perhaps leaving observers to wonder, “What are these ladies thinking?” Timothy Renner, a professor of classics and general humanities at Montclair State University in New Jersey and co-director of the team that is excavating the site, said during the presentation. 

The team found the Medusa mosaics within two niches cut into a circular room at the villa — one in the northwest part of the room and another in the southeast part. The room had two other niches, but no mosaic remains were found in them. 

It’s still a mystery what this room was used for and why it contained Medusa mosaics. However, it “definitely must have been quite impressive to enter the room,” Deborah Chatr Aryamontri an associate professor of classics and general humanities at Montclair State University and co-director of the team, said during an interview with Live Science, noting that the room is around 69 feet (21 meters) in diameter. 

“Finding those mosaics [was] a pleasant surprise,” Chatr Aryamontri said, noting that many of the villa’s most impressive decorations were removed during the 18th and 19th centuries. 

In the second century, Medusa heads were popular decorative features in the Roman world, the researchers said. It’s not certain if the villa’s owners ordered them specifically or whether they were created on the whim of the artist who worked on the room. 

The Antonine dynasty ruled the Roman Empire between the reigns of Emperors Antoninus Pius (reign A.D. 138-161) and Commodus (reign A.D. 177-192) The villa is immense and even has what appears to have been an amphitheater used by Emperor Commodus for gladiator practice and the killing of wild beasts. (Commodus sometimes participated in gladiator fights.) 

The circular room appears to be in an area where people resided in the villa. One possibility is that it was a reception room. Chatr Aryamontri and Renner told Live Science that this is uncertain and they are not even sure if the circular room had a roof. 

Site disturbance

One challenge for modern archaeologists is that there is a large amount of damage and disturbance at the site. In the past, the area where the villa is located in Italy was looted and used for dumping. Also, during World War II, the site was in a strategic location that saw considerable movement of troops. “We actually find some World War II artifacts” during excavation of the villa, Chatr Aryamontri said. 

A photograph of the area taken in the early 20th century shows Roman concrete walls that are above ground, but they have since suffered damage or are now destroyed, Renner said. 

A small portion of the circular room with mosaics was first found in 2014, and excavation and analysis have continued since then. The team hopes to help create an archaeological park at the villa’s location someday. 

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Digital Image Depicts 30,000-Year-Old Egyptian

Digital Image Depicts 30,000-Year-Old Egyptian

Digital Image Depicts 30,000-Year-Old Egyptian
Researchers created two facial approximations of an ancient Egyptian man using photogrammetry.

A lifelike facial approximation of a man who lived 30,000 years ago in what is now Egypt may offer clues about human evolution.

In 1980, archaeologists unearthed the man’s skeletal remains at Nazlet Khater 2, an archaeological site in Egypt’s Nile Valley. Anthropological analysis revealed that the man was between 17 and 29 years old when he died, stood approximately 5 feet, 3 inches (160 centimeters) tall and was of African ancestry.

The skeleton is the oldest example of Homo sapiens remains found in Egypt and one of the oldest in the world, according to a study published March 22.

However, little else was known about him other than that he was buried alongside a stone ax.

Now, more than 40 years later, a team of Brazilian researchers has created a facial approximation of the man using dozens of digital images they collected while viewing his skeletal remains, which are part of the collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. 

“The skeleton has most of the bones preserved, although there have been some losses, such as the absence of ribs, hands, [the] middle-inferior part of the right tibia [shin bone] and [the] lower part of the left tibia, as well as the feet,” first aut, an archaeologist with the Ciro Flamarion Cardoso Archaeology Museum in Brazil, told Live Science in an email. “But the main structure for facial approximation, the skull, was well preserved.”

One characteristic of the skull that stood out to the researchers was the jaw and how it differed from more modern mandibles. A portion of the skull was also missing, but the team copied and mirrored it using the opposite side of the skull and used data points from computerized tomography (CT) scans from living virtual donors. 

“The skull, in general terms, has a modern structure, but part of it has archaic elements, such as the jaw, which is much more robust than that of modern men,” study co-researcher Cícero Moraes, a Brazilian graphics expert, told Live Science in an email. “When I observed the skull for the first time, I was impressed with that structure and at the same time curious to know how it would look after approaching the face.”

By digitally stitching together the images in a process known as photogrammetry, the researchers created two virtual 3D models of the man.

The first was a black-and-white image with his eyes closed in a neutral state, and the second was a more artistic approach featuring a young man with tousled dark hair and a trimmed beard.

“In general, people think that facial approximation works like in Hollywood movies, where the end result is 100% compatible with the person in life,” Moraes said. “In reality, it’s not quite like that. What we do is approximate what could be the face, with available statistical data and the resulting work is a very simple structure.

“However, it is always important to humanize the individual’s face when working with historical characters, since, by complementing the structure with hair and colors, the identification with the public will be greater, arousing interest and — who knows — a desire to study more about the specific subject or archeology [and] history as a whole,” he added.

The researchers hope that providing a look at this ancient man could help archaeologists better understand how humans have evolved over time.

“The fact that this individual is over 30,000 years old makes it important for understanding human evolution,” Santos said.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Python May Have Been on the Neolithic Menu in Southern China

Python May Have Been on the Neolithic Menu in Southern China

This undated file photo shows a discovery site of prehistoric snake bones in the Zuojiang River basin, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Snake bones that date back to the Neolithic period, around 6,000 years ago, have been discovered in the Zuojiang River basin, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The longest single vertebra unveiled at the site represents an individual snake belonging to the species Python bivittatus. The vertebra indicates the snake’s overall body length exceeded 4.58 meters, surpassing the previous record in China for this species of 3.56 meters.

The new discovery has also helped shed light on on the history of hunting snakes in south China, which can be traced back to about 6,000 years ago.

Most of the unearthed snake bones had suspected burn marks on the surface, and the mammalian bones piled up alongside also showed signs of manual cutting or striking, said Yang Qingping with the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relic Protection and Archaeology.

It has not been ruled out that prehistoric human beings in the area roasted food to process the meat, Yang added.

The research was jointly carried out by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relic Protection and Archaeology.

The relevant results have been published online in the international journal Historical Biology.

The Zuojiang River basin boasts rich animal and plant resources with complex and diverse landforms and multiple prehistoric cultural heritages. A group of rock paintings dating back over 2,000 years in the basin was included into UNESCO’s world heritage list in 2016.