Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

17th-Century Coin Hoard Uncovered in Poland

17th-Century Coin Hoard Uncovered in Poland

Archaeologists think the clay jug containing the horde of coins was deliberately buried on a farm in the east of Poland in the second half of the 17th century.

A metal detectorist searching for discarded tractor parts on a Polish farm discovered a completely different type of valuable metal: A spectacular hoard of 17th-century coins buried beneath the soil.

The hoard — a vast stash of about 1,000 copper coins — was found in late February near the small village of Zaniówka in eastern Poland, near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine, by a local man, Michał Łotys.

Łotys was using a new metal detector to find spare parts for his sister’s tractor; and so when the instrument started beeping in one of the farm’s fields, he scraped away a layer of the topsoil. That revealed the coins spilling out of a broken clay “siwak” — a jug in a local style with one handle and a narrow neck.

Using a metal detector to search for buried relics without a permit is illegal in Poland, and so Łotys contacted archaeologists in the nearby city of Lublin, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Warsaw, who visited the farm the next day.

Their investigations showed that the location of the hidden hoard was clearly outlined on the surface of the soil, which indicated it had been buried there intentionally, according to a report in the Polish news outlet The First News.

17th-Century Coin Hoard Uncovered in Poland
Treasure hunters estimate the entire horde of about 1,000 copper coins would have been enough at the time to buy two pairs of shoes, or perhaps 20 gallons of beer.

Buried hoard

Dariusz Kopciowski, the director of Lublin’s heritage conservation agency, announced in a Facebook post on March 2 that the hoard has about 1,000 Polish and Lithuanian copper coins minted in the 17th century.

Oxidation after roughly 400 years in the ground means all the copper coins are now colored green; and many have corroded together in layers. But about 115 of the coins are loose, and the entire hoard weighs about 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms), Kopciowski noted.

Investigations show most of the coins were created between 1663 and 1666 in mints in Warsaw; Vilnius in Lithuania; and Brest, which is now in Belarus but was then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 

The horde contains about 1,000 small copper coins from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of them were minted between 1663 and 1666.
The copper coins are now green from oxidation, and many of them are corroded together in layers. The horde weighs about 6.6 pounds in total.
Copper coins were a popular innovation at the time. They were much cheaper to mint than the existing silver coins of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were heavily debased and difficult to acquire.

According to the Polish metal detectorist website Zwiadowca Historii, such coins are known as “boratynki” after Tito Livio Burattini, who was the manager of the Kraków mint at that time.

Burattini, an Italian, was a famed inventor and polymath who introduced copper coins to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth because they were much cheaper to make than the existing silver coins of the realm; and because its treasury was devastated after years of war with Sweden, Russia and Cossacks.

The “boratynki” coins were initially popular, although Burattini was later accused of debasing the copper metal they were made of and reaping huge profits. 

For a start, they weren’t very valuable, which meant they could be used in everyday transactions; the entire hoard of 1,000 copper coins from Zaniówka would buy  only “about two pairs of shoes” at the time, although they’re worth more now as historical relics, Zwiadowca Historii reported.

The Zaniówka coin hoard will now be transferred to specialists at a museum in the nearby city of Biała Podlaska for further investigations, Kopciowski said.

Fragments of the broken clay jug and several pieces of fabric from the time were also found at the site, he said in the statement.

ASIA, THAILAND, WORLD

When Did Hominins Begin to Produce Tools?

When Did Hominins Begin to Produce Tools?

In Thailand, long-tailed macaque monkeys (shown pounding open oil palm nuts with rocks) inadvertently bash off pieces of stone, raising questions about whether some of the earliest known hominid tools were made on purpose.

Monkeys in southern Thailand use rocks to pound open oil palm nuts, inadvertently shattering stone pieces off their makeshift nutcrackers. These flakes resemble some sharp-edged stone tools presumed to have been created on purpose by ancient hominids, researchers say.

Thailand’s long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) produce shards that could easily be mistaken for stone flakes previously found at 17 East African hominid sites dating from about 3.3 million to 1.56 million years ago, say archaeologist Tomos Proffitt and colleagues.

The finding suggests that ancient hominids may sometimes have created the stone flakes by accident while using rocks to smash nuts, bones or other objects, the scientists report March 10 in Science Advances.

Previous research has already shown that rock-wielding capuchin monkeys in Brazil unwittingly produce hominid-like stone flakes (SN: 10/19/16).

Observations of rock bashing by these two monkey species undermine a long-standing assumption that hominids must have intentionally made certain ancient stone flakes, including some of the earliest known examples of tools, Proffitt says (SN: 6/3/19). It’s time to reevaluate how such determinations are made, he contends.

Proffitt’s group identified 219 complete and fragmented stone flakes at 40 macaque nut-cracking sites on the island where the monkeys live.

The team also found rocks showing damage consistent with having been used either as pounding implements or pounding platforms.

When Did Hominins Begin to Produce Tools?
While cracking nuts, a long-tailed macaque unintentionally produced this stone shard. It resembles other flakes that researchers have thought ancient hominids created on purpose as tools.

Some differences do exist between macaque and hominid stone flakes, says Proffitt, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. For instance, many macaque flakes display battering damage on only one side, versus frequent two-sided damage on hominid artifacts.

Such clues may help archaeologists develop guidelines for estimating whether ancient hominids made stone flakes on purpose or by accident, Proffitt suspects.

EUROPE, NETHERLANDS, WORLD

Netherlands’s unique treasure finds of medieval gold jewelry and silver coins

Netherlands’s unique treasure finds of medieval gold jewelry and silver coins

Netherlands’s unique treasure finds of medieval gold jewelry and silver coins

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (the National Museum of Antiquities) in the Netherlands has announced that a unique treasure of 1000-year-old gold jewelry and silver coins has been found and will be public as part of a new exhibition.

The hoard was found in 2021 by a metal detectorist in Hoogwoud (Opmeer municipality in North Holland).

The hoard consists of four decorated gold search earring pendants in the shape of a crescent moon, along with two pieces of gold leaf that fit together, and 39 small silver coins from the medieval period. The coins date from 1200 to 1248, indicating that the hoard was buried around the middle of the 13th century. However, the jewelry, a prized heirloom collection, was already 200 years old when it was buried with the coins.

Lorenzo Ruijter, a Dutch historian and metal detectorist, discovered the hoard in Hoogwoud, in 2021. He informed regional heritage authorities about his discovery. He had to keep his discovery hidden for two years while experts at the National Museum of Antiquities cleaned, conserved, and investigated the hoard before announcing the incredible find.

The most important pieces in the hoard are four earrings from the 11th century. They are large, about two inches wide, and crescent-shaped. Two of the four pendants have intricate filigree decoration. The other two are engraved with decorative scenes.

The search earring pendants are decorated on one side and have fragile suspension brackets, implying that they were most likely not pierced through the ears but rather worn on a hood or a headband.

One of the pendants depicts a man’s head surrounded by sunlight rays, which has been interpreted as a portrait of Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.”

Sol invictus on gold earring.

The 39 silver coins are small pennies from Holland, Guelders and Cleves, the Diocese of Utrecht, and the German Empire. Textile traces discovered with the coins suggest they were originally buried in a bag or wrapped in cloth.

The most recent of the coins were struck in 1247-8 by William II of Holland when he was elected King of Germany after Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV.

William died in 1256 in Hoogwoud where the hoard was found.  He and his horse were in the area fighting one of his many wars against the West Frisians when they fell through weak ice into a frozen lake.

His West Frisian adversaries murdered him before the cold lake could finish what it had begun, and buried him beneath the floorboards of a nearby house.

As a result, the hoard has enormous archaeological significance in the history of Holland as a region and the Netherlands as a whole.

The hoard is on display at the museum until mid-June of this year. It will go back on display in October as part of The Year 1000 exhibition.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Unique tombs wrapped in high-quality fabrics and painted bodies were discovered at monumental temple in Peru

Unique tombs wrapped in high-quality fabrics and painted bodies were discovered at a monumental temple in Peru

Unique tombs wrapped in high-quality fabrics and painted bodies were discovered at the monumental temple in Peru.

Located on the Cerro Colorado hill near the city of Barranca, Peru, four mysterious mounds were identified as spots with potential archaeological significance. The mounds were later revealed to contain human remains and the remnants of a temple structure.

Excavations are being carried out by archaeologists from the Jagiellonian University and St Mark’s University as part of the Programa de Investigacion “Los valles de Barranca” project.

The project to investigate the area began in 2022, and the results were announced in February of this year, according to Nauka W Polsce.

Human burials and monumental architecture made of dried bricks and stone blocks were discovered during research on two of the mounds. This has resulted in a large-scale excavation of the site, where the project has discovered destroyed burials in the form of burial bundles, which were placed within the ruins of a temple complex made of dried brick.

Dyed fabric found in a tomb at the top of the site, dated 772 -989 AD

The remains of a young boy whose skull was intentionally deformed are found in one of the destroyed burials. He was originally buried with decorated textiles, indicating that he came from a high-status family. The fabric was three meters long and decorated with totally unique zoomorphic representations.

Bioarchaeologist, Łukasz Majchrzak, said “One of them (fabrics), 3 meters long, was decorated with zoomorphic representations and is unique – similar fabrics have not been found in the entire Andes so far,”

The construction of the temple complex was dated by physicochemical analysis and carbon dating of organic remains to between 2500 and 2200 BC, whereas the same method used to date the burials indicates that they were interred between AD 772 and 989.

Dyed fabric detail.

“Andeans used to set up necropolises in abandoned places of worship. This was also the case here because the graves were dug into structures that were several thousand years older,” added Majchrzak.

The grass and mortar mixture that was used to bind the blocks that made up the small pyramid was sampled for the structure’s dating. Settlements with imposing architecture were built in the Andes during the third millennium BC, and agriculture spread as a result of interactions with communities residing in the Amazon.

A wall made of bricks at the top of the site.

The examined graves date from the Wari Empire’s reign over the region. Castillo de Huarmey, one of the most important sites of this culture, is only 70 kilometers north of Barranca.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered

The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered

The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered

The 5,000-year-old swords found 43 years ago during the excavations in the old mud-brick palace structure in Malatya Arslantepe Mound are the oldest swords in the world.

Many archaeologists believed that the earliest swords only dated to around 1600 or 1500 BCE before the discovery of a cache of swords at the archaeological site of Arslantepe in Turkey.

The nine swords from the archaeological site of Arslantepe (Melid) attest to the use of this weapon for the first time in the world – at least a millennium before the already-known examples. They date back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 33rd to 31st centuries).

In the 1980s, Marcella Frangipane’s team at Rome University discovered a cache of nine swords and daggers dating all the way back to 3300 BCE. Frangipane declared the swords of Arslantepe the world’s oldest and first swords ever discovered.

They are made of an alloy of arsenic and copper. Three of the swords were exquisitely inlaid with silver. These weapons have a total length of 45 to 60 cm, which points to either a short sword or a long dagger classification.

The first swords of the world.

This region is thought to be the birthplace of the sword as we see these blades begin to appear, made from this new technology and having the elements we think of as identifying a sword. They have a blade, guard, grip, and pommel like shape.

Size wise they would be shorter than we think of today for most swords but in their time, they may well be the length that was achievable with the best technology of the day.

This advancement in metallurgy can be seen in many valuable objects found in high-status graves of the time, and these swords are among them.

There is a lot of debate about how these pieces work. Were they merely status symbols, or could they have served a practical purpose? Swords have been used for both purposes throughout history, and even if they appear unwieldy to our modern standards, they may have worked well enough in the hands of an antagonist in 3000 BCE to ruin your day.

The first swords of the world.

The Aslantepe Mound in Malatya, where the first city-state was established, sheds light on history with its adobe palace, 5,500-year-old temple, swords, and spears. It is located on the western shore of the Euphrates, seven kilometers away from the city center.

Arslantepe Mound, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, was partially damaged after the Feb. 6 twin earthquakes in the country’s southern region.

With no damage to the permanent roof of the museum, the temporary roof suffered partial collapse but it did not cause harm to its archaeological texture.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Evidence of Rare Romano-Celtic Temple Near Lancaster Castle -may be only the second of its type –

Evidence of Rare Romano-Celtic Temple Near Lancaster Castle -may be only the second of its type –

Evidence of Rare Romano-Celtic Temple Near Lancaster Castle -may be only the second of its type –

A study exercise for students from Lancaster University has uncovered a Romano-Celtic temple, only the second of its type in northern Britain. The discovery was made during a hydro geophysics training session near Lancaster’s Roman military fort and castle, revealing an extensive religious enclosure identified as a Romano-Celtic temple.

Lancaster had a large military fort and garrison in Roman times. It was an important command center between Chester and Hadrian’s Wall and a base for naval operations and supply.

Around AD 80, the Lancaster Roman Fort, also known as Wery Wall, Galacum, or Calunium (the fort’s modern name), was first built atop Castle Hill in Lancaster to guard a bridge over the River Lune. Archaeological evidence suggests that the fort remained active until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain in the early 5th century.

Professor Andy Binley, an expert in hydro geophysics at Lancaster Environment Centre, offered to use his research expertise and equipment to continue the work of the Beyond The Castle archaeological project when heritage lottery funding ran out in 2017.

“I had a few Ph.D. students doing geophysical research and thought this was an interesting group hobby project, training them on techniques and getting them to work as a team,” said Professor Binley, who uses geophysical methods to solve hydrological problems, such as assessing underground water in agriculture and tracking groundwater contamination.

The Beyond the Castle project had been using standard geophysical techniques followed by trial excavation to explore the green open space between Lancaster Castle and the River Lune. These had revealed evidence of a building, thought to be a Roman warehouse, under an area called Quay Meadow, owned by Lancaster City Council. But Professor Binley and his students would make much more extensive, and exciting discoveries.

Using ground penetrating radar, resistivity mapping, and modeling to produce high-resolution 3D images, the study found evidence of a Romano-Celtic temple showing a walled enclosure with a gateway leading to a processional way.

The mapping data also shows a possible roadside mausoleum outside the enclosure, and what might be the base of an altar close to the temple.

The major discovery was what Beyond the Castle project’s leading archaeologist, Jason Wood believes is a Romano-Celtic temple – only the second such temple found in Northern Britain – the other one is close to Hadrian’s Wall.

These temples have a very specific design – two sets of walls forming a square within a square, with a very small interior.

Luke Pritchard surveying the site for Roman archaeology.

“It would have been dedicated to a god, probably associated with the sea or river. The inner sanctum was reserved for the priests, and the outer ambulatory space was for elite members of society,” said Mr Wood.

“Most of the religious activities would have happened outside the temple, including sacrifices. There would have been a sanctuary or enclosure, possibly with another temple and buildings associated with hospitality and curing the sick. The enclosure would have been separate from the fort, but connected to it by a road or processional way.”

“So few of these sites have been excavated in the UK, so it is significant to have found a Romano-Celtic temple in its temenos (enclosure) by a river,” said Mr Wood.

The findings are outlined in the paper ‘Lancaster Romano-Celtic temple is significant find’ published by British Archaeology.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

U.S. Repatriates Looted Artifact to Iraq

U.S. Repatriates Looted Artifact to Iraq

Atlanta FBI agents started investigating the stolen art last year. The artifact turned up at an Emory University museum in 2006.

U.S. Repatriates Looted Artifact to Iraq

The FBI announced Thursday that the U.S. has returned a stolen Iraqi artifact that has been missing for 20 years, officials said.

The “Furniture Fitting with Sphinx Trampling a Youth” first disappeared in Baghdad in 2003.  

It was recently being held at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta before it was returned. The Carlos Museum purchased the artifact from a third party in 2006.

The FBI said that the party used a fake record with the wrong date the artifact entered the country.  

“While we realize there was no ill intent on behalf of Emory University, we are glad our agents could return a small part of history back to where it belongs in Iraq,” said Keri Farley, Special Agent in charge of FBI Atlanta.

Atlanta FBI Agents began investigating the theft last year in January. Officials with the Emory museum handed over the artifact to FBI Atlanta agents last December.

According to historians, the art dates back to the Iron Age, which happened in the 7th Century B.C. It is made of ivory, pigment and gold leaf.

Officials held a ceremony Wednesday at the Iraqi Embassy in the nations capital where the special agent team presented the artifact to an Iraqi official.  

The team signed documents at the ceremony where they made it the artifact’s return to Iraq official.

Agents believe the artifact was stolen during the looting of the Iraq Museum in 2003. Experts determined it was stolen from the Iraq Museum using photographs. 

“The protection of the world’s cultural heritage is a priority for the U.S. Government,” said Special Agent Rafael Jimenez. 

Officials said the piece was stolen with thousands of other priceless artifacts. 

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Bronze Age Ice Skates Found in China

Bronze Age Ice Skates Found in China

The roughly 3,500-year-old bone ice skates found in Xinjiang are almost exactly like prehistoric ice skates found in northern Europe.

Archaeologists in China have unearthed 3,500-year-old ice skates crafted from animal bone in the country’s western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a mountainous area that some archaeologists think was the birthplace of skiing.

These ice skates, the oldest ever found in China,  were made from the bones of oxen and horses, according to a translated statement. They were found in a tomb in the Gaotai Ruins, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) west of the regional capital Ürümqi, archaeologists with the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regional government said at a news event on Feb. 27.

It’s not known if the skates were used for hunting or for regular travel. They consist of a straight piece of bone with holes at both ends so they could be strapped to footwear. The resulting “blade” is very flat compared with modern skates, but it formed a cutting edge that allowed the wearer to glide across the ice.

Archaeologist Ruan Qiurong, of the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, told reporters that the newly-found skates are almost exactly the same as ice skates from prehistoric Europe, which can be interpreted as new evidence of a theorized exchange of information between the ancient west and east in the Bronze Age. They are also rare physical material for studying the origins of ice skating in China, he said.

Bronze Age ruins

The skates were found in tombs at the Jirentai Goukou archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang, which archaeologists think was inhabited by people from the Andronovo culture of cattle-herders in the late Bronze Age.

The Goaotai Ruins where the ice skates were found are part of the Jirentai Goukou (Jartai Pass) archeological site, which was discovered in 2015. The site comprises an ancient settlement and a nearby tomb complex within a high platform surrounded by stone slabs. 

Archaeologists think the site dates from about 3,600 years ago, when the region was occupied by people from the Andronovo culture of cattle-herders, which also occupied parts of Central Asia and the far east of Europe in the late Bronze Age.

The tomb platform is one of the best-preserved Bronze Age tomb buildings in Xinjiang and possibly on the Eurasian steppe, the archaeologists said.

The tombs are thought to have belonged to a noble family among the early cattle-herding people of the area, Qiurong noted; and that the excavations there have revealed important aspects of their burial rites, beliefs and social structures.

Other features of the tombs, including a ray-like structure made from 17 lines of stones, indicate a possible belief in sun-worship, he told the Indo-Asian News Service in 2020.

Wheels and wagons

Buried wooden wagons found at archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang.
Bronze Age Ice Skates Found in China
Overhead view of buried wooden wagons found at archaeological site in China’s Xinjiang.

The archaeologists also found the remains of dozens of wooden wagons or carts that appear to have been used to build the tomb platform. They include 11 solid wooden wheels and more than 30 wooden parts, including rims and shafts. 

“We initially judged that [the wagons] were used to build the high platform around the tombs, and then dismantled and deliberately buried,” Qiurong said at the news conference.

The bone skates found at the Goaotai Ruins are not the oldest on record, but are surprisingly similar to 5,000-year-old skates found in Finland, and similar ice skates have been found at archaeological sites throughout northern Europe.

Scientists think the Finnish skates were used by ancient people in the mostly-flat regions of southern Finland, which is dotted with tens of thousands of small lakes that freeze over in the winter.

China’s mountainous Xinjiang region might also be the birthplace of skiing, according to The New York Times. 

Ancient cave paintings in northern Xinjiang’s Altai Mountains, which some archaeologists think may be 10,000 years old, depict hunters on what appear to be skis. But other archaeologists dispute the claim, saying the cave paintings can’t be reliably dated.