Category Archives: WORLD

ASIA, RUSSIA, WORLD

A secret stash of tsar’s gold worth billions was found in an old rail tunnel near Lake Baikal

A secret stash of tsar’s gold worth billions was found in an old rail tunnel near Lake Baikal

Royal discovery made after 99-year-old code is broken by Siberian mathematics genius.

A formal statement is due around noon in Moscow on Saturday when the first pictures of the gold will be revealed to the world’s media.

The former tunnel and at an undisclosed location in the Irkutsk region is today under the protection of the Russian national guard after the sensational discovery exactly a century after Tsar Nicholas II was deposed. 

Rail carriages packed with gold bullion bearing the Romanov insignia along with ‘other treasures’ – in the possession of anti-Bolshevik forces as they retreated from the Red Army after the Russian Revolution – were hidden in 1918, according to sources quoted by multiple Russian news agencies. 

At least one ‘crown once worn by the last Russian emperor’ is in the collection, it was reported early today. 

Unlike last year’s claim of Nazi gold hidden in Poland, today’s report is ‘genuine and verified by competent state organs’ under direct Kremlin orders, said a source close to the discovery.

A formal statement is due around noon in Moscow on Saturday when the first pictures of the gold will be revealed to the world’s media.

The former tunnel and at undisclosed location in Irkustk region is under the protection of the Russian national guard.

The first consignments will be moved to the Russian Central Bank within hours. The treasure has been claimed already by the Russian state in a closed-door court case beginning at 00.01 on Saturday in Irkutsk under tight security.

The stash ‘more than compensates for the cost of sanctions imposed by Western governments’, said an informed insider early today.

The location of the gold was discovered after a secret code giving the coordinates of the location in the Irkutsk region – originally found deep in the Stalin era – was cracked by a 21-year-old mathematics protege who studies in Tomsk.

The document was seized from a Kolchak aide in 1919 and has lain for years in a Russian national archive in Moscow. 

Russia’s gold pictured in vaults of Kazan State Bank in 1918.

Over the decades, experts have failed to understand the bizarre instructions written in Russian, French, and English. 

‘It was simple once I understood the importance of the numbers 1 and 4 and their complex interrelationship,’ said the student in an interview with TASS news agency.  

The mathematics genius, who has not been named because he is also a ‘hacking maestro’ suspected by the FBI of involvement in penetrating Hillary Clinton’s emails, took less than one hour to crack the decades-old formula designed to inform royalists the location of the treasure.

Since the defeat of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, leader of the White Russian forces, there has been speculation about the tsar’s gold, and where it was stashed. 

In the months leading up to July 1918, when abdicated ruler Nicholas II and his family were shot on Lenin’s orders, it is estimated that 73% of the world’s largest gold reserves were held in Kazan, a city on the Volga River, before most was shifted further east into Siberia.

It had been moved here for security reasons during the First World War.

Alexander Kolchak.

Grainy pictures from the vaults of a Kazan bank highlight that gold and other precious metals of untold value were held here. It is known that huge stocks of gold were removed to Omsk in Siberia by train on 13 October 1918.

One month later Kolchak was proclaimed Supreme Ruler of the country and Omsk was briefly the capital city of anti-Bolshevik Russia. 

One theory is that as the gold was transported east from Omsk and some of the suspected 1,600 tons of royal bullion sank into Lake Baikal near Cape Polovinny after a train accident. 

Mini-submarines scored Lake Baikal in 2010 for a cargo of gold that was reported to have fallen from a derailed train into the lake. 

Separate claims suggested gold was carried towards Imperial China by troops loyal to Kolchak across frozen Baikal in the winter of 1919-20. 

Other claims suggested gold was buried in the Krasnoyarsk region. 

Mini-submarines scored Lake Baikal in 2010 for a cargo of gold that was reported to have fallen from a derailed train into the lake.

Mini-submarines scored Lake Baikal in 2010 for a cargo of gold that was reported to have fallen from a derailed train into the lake. Pictures: Channel 1 TV, The Siberian Times 

In 1928, a New York court was told that the gold was elsewhere – buried in woods near Kazan.

There have been claims the value of tsarist gold could be as much as $80 billion.

Provisional estimates from the site in the Irkutsk region suggest the stash is worth a little less than $30 billion.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Scientists reveal new discovery inside the Pyramid of Khufu

Scientists reveal new discovery inside the Pyramid of Khufu

Scientists reveal new discovery inside the Pyramid of Khufu

An Egyptian pyramid for 4,500 years is still spilling secrets. After a years-long project using modern technology to reveal the secrets inside the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still standing, a once-hidden corridor inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Great Pyramid of Giza) has been identified.

An international research team used a cosmic ray imaging method to analyze a cavity discovered behind the pyramid’s north face in 2016. Their findings were announced at a news conference with Egyptian officials.

“This discovery, in my opinion, is the most important discovery of the 21st Century,” Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, told reporters outside the pyramid.

The corridor – on the northern side of the Pyramid of Khufu – was discovered using modern scanning technology.

It measures 9 meters (nearly 30 feet) in length and is 2 meters (over 6 feet) wide, perched above the main entrance of the pyramid.

Archaeologists have not yet ascertained the function of the chamber, which is not accessible from the outside. In 2017, scientists announced the discovery of another sealed-off corridor, a 30-meter chamber – or about 98 feet – also inside the Pyramid of Khufu.

The corridor, officials said, adding that it was most likely designed to help relieve the weight of the vast structure, which was built as royal burial chambers around 2560 B.C.

A hidden corridor inside the Great Pyramid of Giza that was discovered by researches recently, in Giza, Egypt.

The pyramid, also known as Khufu’s Pyramid, was built by Khufu, a 4th Dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 2509 to 2483 B.C., on the Giza plateau outside of Cairo.

“The discovery today tells us there is something important to be discovered soon under that tunnel, which could be the real burial chamber of Khufu,” Hawass said.

The most recent find is a part of the global “ScanPyramids” project, which was initiated by Egypt’s antiquities ministry in October 2015 and aims to peer inside the enormous structures without using invasive drilling techniques.

Since there is disagreement among experts regarding how the pyramids were built, even relatively small discoveries are of great interest. To increase tourism, a key source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped Middle Eastern nation, authorities frequently publicly tout discoveries.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Monumental Roman complex discovered in France

Monumental Roman complex discovered in France

In the city of Reims in northeastern France, archaeologists have discovered an ancient Roman-era monumental complex dating from the 2nd – 3rd century AD.

The structure consists of two porticoed galleries 65 ft lengthy forming the arms of a U. Greater than 20 rooms occupy the galleries, from corridors to residing areas with chalk flooring and fireplaces. 9 of the rooms had been a part of the traditional baths. 5 of them had a hypocaust underfloor heating system; lots of the pilae stacks (sq. tile piles) that supported the ground are nonetheless in place and in glorious situation.

Within the empty house between the galleries are two rectangular masonry buildings that had been possible a part of backyard. One of many two was a basin or fountain. Two pressurized water pipes had been discovered that stuffed the basin and/or fed the water function.

In the centre, foundation of an ancient basin surrounded by remains of its porticoed gallery, discovered in Reims (Marne), in 2023. An ancient monumental site from the 2nd-3rd centuries was discovered there.

Archaeologists discovered painted plasters adorned with floral motifs. Some of the pigments used, such as a blue similar to “Egyptian blue,” are extremely rare.

This discovery typifies a very simple set. The large number of rooms, their organization, the wealth of the decorations, the two large galleries, the hydraulic network, and the archaeological elements discovered (ceramics, architectural blocks, copper alloy tableware, and so on) allow for two interpretations. These relics could be the domus (house) of a wealthy individual or a spa complex, possibly open to the public, given the monumentality.

The Porte de Mars, the largest remaining Roman triumphal arch from the third century A.D., is just 100 meters (328 feet) away from the monumental complex. One of four imposing gates in the city walls, the arch was named after a nearby Temple of Mars.

Pilettes of the first hypocaust (underfloor heating system) discovered in Reims (Marne), in 2023.

In the third century, this was a very prestigious location, but by the beginning of the fourth, the area had all but been abandoned, and its buildings had been quarried for recycled construction materials.

The construction of Reims’ 4th-century walls may have caused the shift. For the next 1400 years, the neighborhood was used for agriculture before becoming a populated area at the end of the 18th century.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

A 1,400-year-old mural of 2-faced men unearthed in Peru may allude to ‘cosmic realms’

A 1,400-year-old mural of 2-faced men unearthed in Peru may allude to ‘cosmic realms’

A 1,400-year-old mural of 2-faced men unearthed in Peru may allude to 'cosmic realms'
One of the two-faced men is shown here. The goblet they hold at left has four hummingbirds drinking out of it and a rigid feather fan is held in the other hand.

Two murals of two-faced men holding unusual treasures — including a goblet that hummingbirds are drinking from, a detail that may allude to sacrifice and “cosmic realms” — were recently discovered at the 1,400-year-old archaeological site of Pañamarca in coastal Peru. 

Both murals, which adorn the same pillar within a ceremonial hall, are rich in detail. In one mural, which sits near the top of the pillar, a man with two faces — one looking left and one looking right — holds a feather fan in one hand and a goblet with four hummingbirds drinking from it in the other.

The second two-faced man, painted lower on the pillar, has a moving feather fan in one hand and a stick-like object that is only partly preserved in the other. Researchers say the artists may have been experimenting with how to depict movement. 

Both men are wearing what looks like a headdress or crown on their heads and colorful clothing that has elaborate patterns and what appear to be sizable belts. The murals were unearthed by archaeologists in August 2022.

The other two-faced man is shown here. They carry a feather fan that is moving.

Why the Moche depicted these two men like this is a mystery. “There is nothing quite like this in South American archaeology,” Lisa Trever, an associate professor of pre-Columbian art history and archaeology at Columbia University who is one of the leaders of the team, told Live Science in an email. “The artists may have been experimenting with how to show movement, and two narrative moments at once.” 

The murals were drawn between A.D. 550 and 800, at a time when a civilization known as the Moche flourished in coastal areas of Peru. The Moche built sizable temples, engaged in human sacrifice and created fine works of art, such as ceramic goblets that are sculpted in the shapes of human heads. They lived before a writing system was used in Peru. 

The two men may be deities, but this is uncertain. “Typically, deity images in Moche art have non-human aspects like fangs, or the faces or tails or wings of various creatures. This one, with the exception of the two faces, seems entirely human,” Trever noted. 

Both two-faced men are located on a pillar in a hall at Pañamarca in Peru.

Mysterious hall

Pañamarca is an architectural complex located in Peru’s lower Nepeña Valley. The hall with the two-faced men contains numerous other murals, including examples depicting a priestess, a serpent and a bat.

Archaeologists have been studying it for over 60 years, after uncovering the first mural in 1958. Despite the decades of study, much of the hall is still unexcavated, and more murals are likely waiting to be found, the team said in a statement. 

It’s still unknown how the Moche used this hall. “One of the things that is so interesting, and challenging, about this building is that the unusual density of paintings within it means that we can only excavate and conserve a modest part of the building each field season,” Trever said. “That means that we still have a lot of questions about the architecture and its functions.” 

It’s unlikely that many people had access to this hall. “Certainly this was a space that was not for public access, given how narrow the passages and interior space are,” Trever said. “It must have been a very special place to enter, maybe only open to the leaders or elders of the community at Pañamarca.” 

Here we see a close-up of one of the two-faced men.

Important finds

The recent discoveries are important, said Edward Swenson, director of the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto, who is not involved with the research project.

“The Pañamarca murals are truly spectacular, and the 2022 discoveries will no doubt significantly aid archaeological and art historical efforts to reconstruct the cosmological meanings and religious narratives of Moche iconography,” Swenson, who has studied the Moche extensively, told Live Science in an email. 

One possible explanation for why the men have two faces is that it may “signify a mortal wearing a mask and thus impersonating or becoming one with [the] supernatural,” Swenson said. 

The detail of the hummingbirds drinking from the goblet is also important, as it may symbolize a connection between mortals and gods. “I interpret the [hummingbirds] drinking from the cup as a powerful invocation of the centrality of sacrifice in Moche worldview,” Swenson said. “Sacrifice served as a critical mechanism to ensure the circulation of life-giving fluids between beings and cosmic realms.” 

The team will continue fieldwork at the site this year. 

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

New paintings believed to be from the prehistoric era have come to light during the ongoing studies on Mount Latmos (Beşparmak), home to significant rock paintings from ancient times.

Located in the western province of Aydın, the Latmos region is one of the places that attracts attention with its natural beauties, as it is also on the route of local and foreign tourists who want to explore nature and history.

While studies have been carried out to preserve the region and reveal its historical importance, the rock paintings of Latmos shed light on prehistoric times.

The number of the first known prehistoric rock paintings in Western Anatolia, discovered by German Archaeologist Anneliese Peschlow in 1994, has reached 200, with new paintings found since then.

The main subject of Latmos rock paintings, which have unique features in terms of subject and style, is related to the relationship between men and women, family, spring festivals and wedding ceremonies. In many paintings, decorations and figures resembling weaving patterns are also seen.

The newly discovered painting, which is believed to date back to prehistoric times, was found on a rock and in its cavities during the research conducted by the Ecosystem Conservation and Nature Lovers Association (EKODOSD).

Stating that they applied to the Aydın Cultural Heritage Preservation Board after the new discovery, EKODOSD President Bahattin Sürücü said, “There are human figures and ornamental motifs in the paintings drawn on a rock surface and its natural cavities.

It is seen that a figure drawn in a natural cavity has a different shape from the previous rock paintings. Peschlow, who has been working on prehistoric rock paintings in the Latmos region for years, has studied the newly found paintings. It was reported that the painting with interesting figures was not in Peschlow’s records.”

He said that further examinations will be made on the rock paintings by the Directorate General for Preservation of Natural Heritage.

After the first rock painting was discovered in Söğütözü in 1994, nearly 200 paintings have been so far found, Sürücü said.

“Considering that there are thousands of rock shelters and caves on a wide area among the rugged, stacked rocks of the Latmos Mountains, it is a fact that it is difficult and takes decades to study and detect them.

It is not easy to find rock paintings in the complex structure of the Latmos Mountains, which is almost an open-air museum with its castles, ancient stone roads, monasteries and defensive structures.”

“The newly found rock painting shows once again that many paintings drawn by prehistoric artists on thousands of rocks in the Latmos region are waiting to be discovered. Latmos Mountains are world heritage and should be protected as a whole,” he added.

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

Hiker found a place of holy worship at an altitude of 2,590 meters in the Swiss Alps

Hiker found a place of holy worship at an altitude of 2,590 meters in the Swiss Alps

Hiker found a place of holy worship at an altitude of 2,590 meters in the Swiss Alps

A trekking enthusiast stumbled upon an ancient Roman coin buried in rubble in a remote area high in the Alps in the Swiss Canton of Bern.

After reporting the finding to the local archeological unit, a whole hoard of ancient artifacts was found buried at the site, which archeologists now believe may have been a place of holy worship—a site to lay offerings to the Roman mountain gods.

Since the hiker’s fortunate discovery, archaeologists have conducted two dig seasons and discovered one hundred additional Roman coins dating from the first to the fifth century A.D.

The oldest is a Tiberian coin from 22 to 30 AD, and the most recent is an Arcadian coin from the eastern empire (r. 395-408 A.D.). A fibula from the first century B.C., 59 Roman shoe hobnails, and a piece of a bronze votive plate in the shape of a leaf were also discovered by the team.

“We do find single Roman coins occasionally in the Alps, but this site is unusual because of the amount of coins and the location,” Regula Gubler, the study’s scientific project manager, told Newsweek.

“More common would be finds—coins, brooches—on mountain passes. This site however, is far from human habitation, today and in Roman times, at 2,590 meters above sea level [nearly 8,500 feet], and definitely not a pass.”

A votive plaque found at the site, which may have been used to worship the Roman mountains Gods.

Gubler said that the site sits on a plateau between the mountain peaks of Ammertenhorn and Wildstrubel, which she described as “pretty impressive.”

The unusual location of the site, as well as the concentrated collection of treasures that had amassed there, led the researchers to believe that this was a place of great religious significance.

“We are only at the beginning of the investigations, but we think it is a holy place, where people went to deposit votive offerings—mainly coins, but also other objects—asking the deities for things or thanking them,” Gubler said. “I guess a kind of pilgrimage.”

One of the Rock crystals that were found in the excavations. Photo: Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern

The town of Thun, which has several Roman temples, is only a little more than 12 miles away from the site. One of them contains an inscription that mentions female alpine deities, according to archaeologists.

The prevalence of local rock crystals may have been part of the reason the location was seen as sacred.

The researchers will continue to investigate the site in order to learn more about its possible historical significance.

ASIA, RUSSIA, WORLD

In Medieval burial ground, a rare embroidered Deisis depicting Jesus Christ was discovered

In Medieval burial ground, a rare embroidered Deisis depicting Jesus Christ was discovered

In Medieval burial ground, a rare embroidered Deisis depicting Jesus Christ was discovered

Russian archaeologists have uncovered a rare embroidered Deisis depicting Jesus Christ in a medieval burial ground.

46 graves have been dug up during excavations; one of them contained a woman who was buried with an embroidered Deisis depicting Jesus Christ and John the Baptist and was between the ages of 16 and 25.

The discovery was made during the construction of the Moscow-Kazan highway, where archaeologists found an 8.6-acre medieval settlement and an associated Christian cemetery.

The iconography of Jesus Christ known as Deesis, which can be translated from Greek as “prayer” or “intercession,” is one of the most potent and prevalent images in Orthodox religious art.

The composition of the Deisis unites the three most important figures of Christianity. A tripartite icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church showing Christ usually enthroned between the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist.

Photo: Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The fabric is 12.1 cm long by 5.5 cm wide and is composed of two parts joined by a vertical seam made of a woven gold ribbon with a braided pattern.

The fabric’s lining did not survive, but a microscopic examination revealed birch bark remnants and needle punctures along the lower and upper edges.

In the center of the fabric is a frontal image of Jesus Christ making a blessing gesture, and to the right of him is John the Baptist praying. A second figure, probably Mary, was once on the left, but it has since disappeared, according to the inspection.

The archaeologists believe the embroidered fabric was once a dark silk samite headdress.

Similar examples include the embroidered crosses and faces of saints discovered in the Karoshsky burial ground in the Yaroslavl region, as well as the Ivorovsky necropolis near Staritsa that features an image of Michael the Archangel wielding a spear.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Roman Lead Coffin Unearthed in Northern England

Roman Lead Coffin Unearthed in Northern England

Roman Lead Coffin Unearthed in Northern England
Bones belonging to the high-status woman were discovered in an ancient lead coffin.

Skeletal remains of a Roman aristocrat have been unearthed in a “truly extraordinary” hidden cemetery dating back 1,600 years. Bones belonging to the high-status woman were discovered in an ancient lead coffin during a dig in the town of Garforth, near Leeds.

Archaeologists said the “once in a lifetime” find could help unlock secrets of a period spanning from the fall of the Roman empire in AD400 to the beginnings of the Anglo-Saxon era.

David Hunter, the principal archaeologist with West Yorkshire Joint Services, said: “This has the potential to be a find of massive significance for what we understand about the development of ancient Britain and Yorkshire.”

Unusually for an ancient cemetery, the remains found in Garforth belonged to people from the late Roman and the early Saxon eras. The skeleton of the late Roman aristocratic woman was found alongside the remains of 60 men, women and children from the two periods.

Archaeologists traced the burial traditions of both cultures in the cemetery, the precise location of which is being kept secret.

The find could help unlock secrets of a period spanning from the fall of the Roman empire in AD400 to the beginnings of the Anglo-Saxon era.

Hunter said: “The presence of two communities using the same burial site is highly unusual and whether their use of this graveyard overlapped or not will determine just how significant the find is.

“When seen together the burials indicate the complexity and precariousness of life during what was a dynamic period in Yorkshire’s history. The lead coffin itself is extremely rare, so this has been a truly extraordinary dig.”

Experts will seek to establish precise timeframes for the burials by carbon dating the remains. Chemical tests will be carried out to try to determine how they lived and what they ate, as well as details about their ancestry.

Leeds city council said the discovery was made last spring but could only be revealed now because of the need to keep the site safe while tests were carried out.

Although the exact location remains a secret, the excavation was in part prompted by a discovery nearby of late Roman stone buildings and a small number of Anglo-Saxon-style structures.

Kylie Buxton, the on-site supervisor for the excavations, said it was every archaeologist’s dream to work on such a project, adding: “There is always a chance of finding burials, but to have discovered a cemetery of such significance, at such a time of transition, was quite unbelievable.

“For me, it was a particular honour to excavate the high-status lead coffin burial, but it was a great team effort by everyone involved.”

Early analysis indicates some of those in the cemetery held early Christian beliefs, and Saxons were accompanied by personal possessions such as knives and pottery.

The council said it hoped the coffin would be displayed in an upcoming exhibition at Leeds City Museum exploring death and burial customs from across the world.