Fish fossils show first cooking may have been 600,000 years earlier than thought
Early human ancestors living 780,000 years ago liked their fish well done, Israeli researchers have revealed, in what they said was the earliest evidence of fire being used for cooking.
The skull of a modern carp is housed at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv. The scientists’ claims are based on 16 years of work at a site near the Jordan River.
Exactly when our ancestors started cooking has been a matter of controversy among archaeologists because it is difficult to prove that an ancient fireplace was used to prepare food, and not just for warmth.
But the birth of the culinary arts marks an important turning point in human history because, by making food easier to chew and digest, it is believed to have greatly contributed to our eventual expansion across the world.
Previously, the first “definitive evidence” of cooking was by Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens 170,000 years ago, according to a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution on Monday.
The study, which pushes that date back by more than 600,000 years, is the result of 16 years of work by its first author, Irit Zohar, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.
During that time she catalogued thousands of fish remains found at a site called Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in northern Israel.
The site near the banks of the Jordan River was once home to a lake, where a treasure trove of ancient fish fossils helped the team of researchers investigate exactly when the first cooks started getting inventive in the kitchen.
“It was like facing a puzzle, with more and more information until we could make a story about human evolution,” Zohar told AFP.
The first clue came in an area that contained “nearly no fish bones” but lots of teeth, she said.
This could point to cooking because fish bones soften and disintegrate at temperatures under 500C (930F), but their teeth remain.
In the same area, a colleague of Zohar’s found burnt flints and other evidence that it had previously been used as a fireplace.
And most of the teeth belonged to just two particularly large species of carp, suggesting they had been selected for their “succulent” meat, the study said. Some of the carp were over two metres (6.5 feet) long.
The “decisive” proof came from studying the teeth’s enamel, Zohar said.
The researchers used a technique called X-ray powder diffraction at the Natural History Museum in London to find out how heating changes the structure of the crystals that make up the enamel.
Comparing the results with other fish fossils, they found that the teeth from the key area of the lake were subjected to a temperature of between 200-500C (400-930F). That is just the right range for well-cooked fish.
Whether our forerunners baked, grilled, poached or sautéd their fish remains unknown, though the study suggested they may have used some kind of earth oven.
Fire is thought to have first been mastered by Homo erectus some 1.7 million years ago. But “because you can control fire for warming, that does not mean you control it for cooking – they could have eaten the fish next to the fire”, Zohar said.
Then the human ancestors might have thrown the bones in the fire, said Anaïs Marrast, an archaeozoologist at France’s National Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the study.
“The whole question about exposure to fire is whether it is about getting rid of remains or a desire to cook,” she said.
Revolutionary War–Era Graves Unearthed in South Carolina
Bill Stevens (from left), Rachel Baker and Madeline Atwell, all forensic anthropologists with the Richland County Coroner’s Office, carefully remove skeletal remains on Nov. 4, 2022, from a gravesite located where the Battle of Camden was fought between American Patriots and the British. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
The bones came out, one by one, lifted from the earth by experienced hands, wrapped in foil and labelled, until the entire skeleton was liberated from this shallow gravesite. The coroners laid each package in a box. Someone unfurled a Maryland flag. Doug Bostick, executive director of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, offered words of thanks to the team.
“It’s so surreal,” he said of the find, “and real.”
Then his colleague David Reuwer voiced a loud cheer.
“Hip-hip …” he called.
“Hoozah!” came the collective response.
“Hip-hip …”
“Hoozah!”
“And for them, hip-hip …”
“HOOZAH!”
The box containing the remains of this Continental Army fighter from Maryland was carried slowly, in procession, to a nearby car as everyone gathered on this old battlefield stood respectfully, hand upon their chest.
Sara Rogers, with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, holds a box with the remains of a Revolutionary War soldier found at the site of the Battle of Camden. A Maryland state flag is draped over the box in honor of the fighter’s origins. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
The soldier, one of 14 discovered here in recent months, surely died a miserable death. His bones, and the skeletal remains of four others hastily buried next to him, were reminders of war’s terrible violence and time’s indifference.
These young men had been lost to the sandy soil, their determination in the face of an overpowering enemy largely forgotten. The battle is known, but not the individual fighters — men of the 1st and 2nd Maryland Brigades, the Delaware Continental Army, Armand’s Legion, and Virginia and North Carolina militias. This archaeological and forensic work changes that. The human remains, tattered though they are, will go to the lab of University of South Carolina anthropology professor Carlina Maria de la Cova for extensive analysis that surely will reveal new information about the Battle of Camden, a disaster for Continental Army Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates and the men under his command on that hot summer day of Aug. 16, 1780.
CAMDEN BATTLEFIELD: The Battle of Camden, fought on a hot summer day in 1780, was a major defeat for the Continental Army. An archaeological project has turned up artifacts and human remains. (SOURCE: ESRI)
A project that began as an effort to remove artefacts and prepare a historic battlefield for public access became something else when the bones were discovered. Thirteen of the dead appear to have been artlessly buried before the wild hogs could get to them. The corpse of a British fighter was set deeper in the soil and formally laid out, perhaps by friends who took extra care. One of the 14 dead found here appears to have been a Native American who possibly was part of the North Carolina Royal Volunteers, a Loyalist militia unit.
Embedded in the broken bones were musket balls. In one set of remains found across Flat Rock Road, the lead ball lodged in the spine of a teenager, perhaps 14 or 15 years old. Archaeologists know this because of the growth plates visible at the ends of long bones. The boy with the shattered spine was one of at least two teenagers found during this dig. It’s highly unusual to exhume human remains from a historic battlefield, and even more unusual to find this many in one place, Bostick said. Generally, if bones are encountered, an effort is made to minimize activities that disturb them.
But this time, thanks to the expertise of forensic anthropologists from the Richland County Coroner’s Office and support from the Department of Natural Resources, the team determined to scrutinize their find in order to glean new information about the Camden killing field in which 3,700 Patriots and 2,230 British fighters and American Loyalists faced off. Plans already are afoot for a grand reinterment ceremony April 20-23. The bones will be returned to their original resting places, enclosed by pine caskets made in an 18th-century style and protected by vaulted graves.
The battle
By the time the dust cleared, some 1,900 men — more than half of the American forces — were dead or wounded. Perhaps 290 injured Patriots were taken, prisoner. Many of the rest, the inexperienced militiamen, had abandoned the battlefield so quickly, just a few suffered injuries. On the British side, about 70 men perished and 245 were wounded, representing about 15 per cent of Gen. Charles Cornwallis’ total forces.
The British had the advantage from the beginning. In May, they had finally captured Charleston, and to support the occupation of the city, Cornwallis established satellite garrisons, staging grounds and supply depots in the South Carolina backcountry, including a significant installation in Camden. Many of his fighters, therefore, were local, rested and ready for action.
Gates, determined to push the British out, marched his troops from Greensboro, N.C., starting that July. When Cornwallis heard about the approach of the Continental Army, he hastened from Charleston to Camden and organized his men.
The face-off was a mismatch, with experienced British regulars confronting a motley assortment of novice militiamen on one side of the battlefield. Gates’ men were hungry and tired; some were sick with dysentery. In the absence of proper rations and rum, they had been fed green peaches and molasses. When the militiamen threw down their arms, turned and fled, the Patriot side collapsed, though the Maryland and Delaware divisions attempted to hold their ground against the dominant British side.
Buttons dating to the late 1700s, embossed with “USA,” were among artifacts found by archaeologists at the Revolutionary War battlefield near Camden on Friday Nov. 4, 2022. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
Steven Smith, research professor at the University of South Carolina’s Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, said he and colleague James Legg first started exploring the Camden battlefield with metal detectors in 1998. Over the years, they have found and plotted around 4,000 artefacts. During the COVID pandemic, they opted to spend much of the time in the open air with their equipment; it was an easy way to stay safe from the virus.
The site, several miles north of the city, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust secured nearly 300 acres and transferred ownership of the property to the Katawba Valley Land Trust in 2019. In September, the archaeologists started excavating for human remains. Collectors had told them about eight known burials. Legg found three sites; Smith found one. Then they encountered another, and another, until they had identified one double grave, one triple grave, one quintuple grave and four graves that each contained the bones of a single person.
“It was a disposal process,” Legg said. “The Continentals fought like Vikings in this battle, but they were overrun.”
It’s said that every battlefield is a burial ground. And there is little time for reverence.
The excavation
Bill Stevens, Richland County deputy coroner and a forensic anthropologist, is kneeling in the shallow gravesite with his two colleagues, Madeline Atwell and Rachel Baker. Loblolly pines tower overhead, but their spacing allows plenty of sunlight to reach the ground. A few flying bugs run accidentally into human obstacles.
The trio have exposed a cluster of five skeletons, digging delicately through the compact sand several inches beyond the bones that now are elevated atop earthen pedestals. Some of the appendages are intertwined and it’s difficult to determine which arm bone belongs to which individual. The dig looks like a miniature Bryce Canyon, except it wasn’t erosion that caused these formations, but an odd combination of human conflict and a researcher’s tiny spade.
Madeline Atwell, a forensic anthropologist with the Richland County Coroner’s Office, carves out a bone from the remains of a Revolutionary War soldier found at the site of the Battle of Camden on Friday Nov. 4, 2022. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
The coroners already have removed nine sets of remains; this is the last gravesite to receive their meticulous attention. Gently, they insert the small blade between the sand pedestal and the skeleton, dislodging enough material to free the bone. These shallow burial sites have been disturbed over the decades by wild creatures, loggers, wagons, road workers and farmers. It’s remarkable that the skeletal remains are intact.
Inside this grave, archaeologists find more than bones. A beautifully made arrowhead, thousands of years old, is lodged in the sand. Several musket balls, the cause of injury and death, are clearly visible. Pewter buttons embossed with “USA” lay among the other objects.
The number of interested spectators is growing. Charles Baxley, chairman of S.C. American Revolution 250th commission has arrived, along with Bonnie Moffat, state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Baxter is overseeing an ambitious project to educate residents and visitors about the war and the founding of the nation. The work here will become an important part of the commission’s narrative, he said.
“These are America’s first veterans, and these veterans were unceremoniously dumped into a hole,” he said.
A Native American arrowhead was among the artifacts found during an archaeological dig at the site of the Battle of Camden on Friday Nov. 4, 2022. The arrowhead likely is thousands of years old. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
Moffat said her organization is arranging to install perhaps 10 historic markers at battlefields across the state in conjunction with the 250th-anniversary celebration. Each marker costs about $4,800, she said. One is planned for Camden.
The S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust has been busy in recent years securing several properties and arranging for public access. It has been partnering with the nonprofit American Battlefield Trust, based in Washington, D.C., to develop the Liberty Trail, a network of Revolutionary War sites in South Carolina. A website, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/liberty-trail, features details about the various historic confrontations and provides maps for those interested in visiting these sites. Now the trust is raising money, as much as $250,000, to help pay for the Camden project and reinterment events, Bostick said.
The reinterment
Battlefield archaeology is a relatively new field of study, Legg said. The first big project took place in 1984-85 at the site of Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana. A grass fire ignited by a tossed cigarette had exposed artifacts and inspired scholars to investigate the area, Legg said. They found a lot: spent cartridges, fired bullets, personal items and human remains.
In 1988, Legg and Smith performed excavation work at a Civil War battle site on Folly Island where they discovered, and removed, 19 sets of human remains, including what was left of the Black soldiers of the 55th Massachusetts Regiment who died there. This was one of the first formally organized Black units to fight on behalf of the United States. Legg and Smith arranged for a reburial at the Beaufort National Cemetery. The Camden battlefield now is well-marked with stakes indicating the top of the head and the bottom of the feet of each skeleton exhumed so archaeologists know precisely where the custom pine caskets sealed with hand-wrought nails are to lay, Smith said.
This will be no ordinary reinterment.
Robert Gibbes, with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, marks containers for soil samples during the removal of human remains from a gravesite on the Camden battlefield on Friday Nov. 4, 2022. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
After about five months of study in the lab, the skeletal remains unearthed at the old battlefield will lie in state at the Kershaw-Cornwallis House from April 20 until the morning of April 22, Bostick said. On April 21, reenactors will set up an encampment by the house. An outdoor concert is planned for that evening.
The next morning, participants will process a mile north to Bethesda Presbyterian Church for a joint Anglican-Presbyterian religious service honouring the fallen soldiers. That afternoon, people will gather at the battlefield for a secular ceremony and reburial. Organizers have informed Gov. Henry McMaster of the events, and they have reached out to the state’s congressional delegation and to British officials. Horse-drawn caissons already are reserved.
Bostick said he expects some or all of the events to be live-streamed.
The X-rays and strontium isotope analysis likely will shed light on exactly how these men died, their age at the time of death, and the precise circumstances of their death. The DNA analysis will take a bit longer to complete, perhaps returning results during the summer.
Linsay Mitchell, an intern with the Richland County Coroner’s Office, helps Stacey Ferguson, of the Historic Camden Foundation, on Nov. 4, 2022, sift through dirt from a gravesite where five soldiers killed in the 1780 Battle of Camden were buried. Gavin McIntyre/Staff
The Battle of Camden “is the outstanding symbol of a series of disastrous setbacks suffered by the American side in the South during The War for Independence,” the National Park Service noted on its National Registry of Historic Places nomination form. “These losses, the surrender of Charleston, the wipe-out at Waxhaws, and then Camden, represent the lowest point to which American fortunes sank in that struggle.”
It was a rout that prompted Gates, the commanding officer, to flee along with many of his men, abandoning the now outnumbered Continental regulars to their fate. Their commander, Maj. Gen. Johann de Kalb, was mortally wounded. Congress wanted an inquiry into Gates’ actions, but it never came to pass. Gates was reassigned and Gen. Nathanael Greene assumed command of the Southern forces. It was a consequential change of leadership, a turning point in the war. Over the next two years, Greene and the fighters he commanded succeeded in driving the enemy from the Carolinas and Georgia. On Dec. 14, 1782, the British completed their evacuation of Charleston, boarding ships at Gadsden’s Wharf and sailing off. The war was coming to an end.
Bathhouse Dated to Third Century B.C. Uncovered in Egypt
This view, from the west, shows part of the bathhouse discovered at Berenike. Dating back more than 2,200 years, it would have been a place where people went to relax after work or exercise.
The ruins of a 2,200-year-old bathhouse dating to the second half of the third century B.C. have been discovered at Berenike, a town in Egypt by the Red Sea.
The giant bathhouse has two tholoi (circular structures) with 14 bathtubs in each that would have had cold or lukewarm water, as well as a separate room for hot baths.
The water entered the building from two large water reservoirs fed by a single well. It’s possible that a gymnasium may have been built to the west of it, Marek Woźniak, an assistant professor at the Polish Academy of Science’s Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, told Live Science in an email.
Woźniak is in charge of researching remains from Berenike that date to ancient Egypt’s Hellenistic period (circa 323 B.C. to 30 B.C.), the time between the death of Alexander the Great and the death of Cleopatra VII. During this time, Greek culture, including architectural styles, flourished in the Middle East.
A well and two water reservoirs are shown in this picture. They fed the bathhouse at Berenike.
At the time that the bathhouse’s waters were flowing, Berenike had a sizable military presence and was a hub for imported goods and war elephants from East Africa said Woźniak.
This bathhouse likely would have been used by people involved in these operations, such as ship crews, said Woźniak.
The heavy military involvement means that most of the people living at Berenike at this time were probably men, Woźniak said.
This bathhouse likely would have been used as a place to relax by the military personnel posted there. Bathhouses in Hellenistic times often “served as places to meet and relax after work or sporting exercise, hence they were often combined with gymnasia [gyms]” Wozniak said.
No writing was found at the bathhouse, but archaeologists unearthed coins and pieces of pottery, finds which helped archaeologists date the bathhouse’s active years, Woźniak said.
The excavations at Berenike are led by Mariusz Gwiazda, an assistant professor of archaeology at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, and Steven Sidebotha, a history professor at the University of Delaware who specializes in the ancient global economy.
The team has made many finds at Berenike over the past few years, including a 2,300-year-old fort and a 1,700-year-old falcon shrine with a stele inscribed with a cryptic message. Excavations and analysis of remains at Berenike are ongoing.
Archaeologists unearth ancient Sumerian riverboat in Iraq
All that’s left today of an ancient boat discovered in 2018 in what was formerly Uruk is the bitumen, black tar that once coated its framework of reeds, palm leaves, or wood. That fragile organic material is long gone, leaving behind only ghostly imprints in the bitumen.
But there’s enough left for archaeologists to tell that in its heyday, the boat would have been a relatively slender craft—7 meters long and about 1.5 meters wide—well-suited to navigating the rivers and canals of ancient Sumer.
Archaeologists found the boat in an area that, 4,000 years ago, would have been the bustling hinterlands of the largest city in the world: Uruk.
Founded in 5000 BCE from the merger of two smaller settlements on the bank of the Euphrates River, Uruk was one of the world’s first major cities and possibly even the birthplace of the world’s first writing (the oldest known writing samples in the world are tablets from Uruk).
The Sumerian King List claims the legendary hero-king, Gilgamesh, ruled from his seat at Uruk in the 2600s BCE, which is not long before the recently excavated boat was built, sailed, and sank.
At its height around 3000 BCE, Uruk boasted 40,000 residents in the city, with a total population of about 80,000 or 90,000 people in the surrounding hinterlands.
The area outside the city boasted smaller communities, farms, ancient manufacturing workshops, and networks of canals. Uruk was beginning its long, slow decline by 2000 BCE, around the time our boat was built.
The outline of the boat’s hull is just visible from the air in this photo.
Based on its resting place in layers of silty sediment, it seems that the boat sank in a river, which swiftly buried it and preserved it for the next 4,000 years. That ancient river has long since silted up, but a few years ago, it began to yield at least one long-held secret: erosion revealed the outline of the boat, which archaeologists documented with digital photos and measurements in 2018.
At the time, archaeologists from the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and the German Archaeological Institute chose to leave the boat buried, where the ancient river’s silt could continue to protect it from decay and damage.
But over the last few years, it became clear that the boat was no longer safe in its resting place. Erosion in the area had picked up the pace, and parts of the boat’s structure were sticking out above the surface.
“Traffic passing close to the site of the discovery was an acute threat to the preservation of the boat,” explained the German Archaeological Institute in a press release.
That led to a rescue mission in which archaeologists had to balance urgency with delicacy as they carefully excavated the boat from its once-watery, now-silty grave.
They encased the boat and a block of the surrounding sediment in a shell made of clay and gypsum plaster to make it easier to safely unearth and move it.
Now, 4,000 years after setting out on its ill-fated final journey, the boat has a new homeport: the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, where archaeologists will study and conserve what’s left of the hull and eventually display it to the public.
A stone statue (Balbal) with a height of up to 3 meters found in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan
A balbal (stone statue) with a height of up to 3 meters was found during agricultural work in the Ak-Bulun village of Tyup district in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan.
Balbal, is the name given to the tombstone that was erected around the grave of some of the kurgan people for the memory of the person in ancient Turks.
Erkin Turbaev, 60, discovered the balbal on October 15 in the evening. When the plow suddenly broke on something, he was preparing to plant potatoes. Turbaev made the decision to dig it out and discovered a more than two-meter-long stone statue at a depth.
According to Turbaev, who leased 80 acres of land between the Ak-Bulak and Belovodskoye settlements, ” A great historical find for this village. It will bring good fortune.”
Many Balbals have been found in Kyrgyzstan before. Many stone warriors (balbals) of the nomadic Turks are found in Çolpan Ata and Karakol on the shores of Issyk Kul. It is estimated that the balbals were erected in the 6th century.
These grave markers in Kyrgyzstan and throughout Central Asia were erected by nomadic Turkish tribes, and almost all of the balbals in Kyrgyzstan are distributed in the Chuy Valley.
The Balbals to the sculptures of the Central Asian Turks, usually in the form of a sword and figure, usually carved on a piece of stone, symbolizing the enemies that the warrior had killed, and the people believed to be his servants in the other world, planted around the tombs of the deceased warriors at the time of widespread preservation of the validity of the shamanic religion.
Stone statue (Balbal) with height up to 3 meters found in Issyk-Kul
When the number of these stones is the right of the dead person; the power, the courage, the hero of the hero.
The balbals, which is prevalent in the pre-Islamic period, left its place to gravestones after acceptance of Islamic religion. Balbal word is a word from the Old Turkic language and means, to strike. However, the meaning of the word is disputed.
The stone balbals in Kyrgyzstan, which are located on the outskirts of the townships of Sai and Bulak villages, are exhibited in the Kara-Batkak museum.
Historian Zhanbolot Abdykerimov said that many historical monuments can be located on the territory of the rural municipality.
“There are historical kurgans (burials) that date back to the 3rd century BC between the settlements of Ak-Bulun and Frunze. There are such kurgans in Fergana and Almaty. There is historical evidence that the ancient city of Sarybulun [Chigu or Chiguchen – in Chinese sources, the “City of the Red Valley”] was in the eastern part of Issyk-Kul,” the historian noted.
According to Abdykerimov, the statue has special marks: inscriptions on the head, a pendant in the neck area and a hand in the middle indicating belonging to some title.
There are pictures on the back and a belt. A short sword similar to an akinak is drawn. Such weapons were actively used during the Saka period. It is difficult to determine without archaeologists to which period the balbal belongs, the historian noted.
Balbal, which was slightly damaged by tractor drivers during excavations, is 2 meters and 70 centimetres long. It was stated that such stone sculptures had not been encountered before in the village.
A 3200-year-old trepanned skull was discovered in eastern Turkey’s Van province
Trepanated skull of a woman-Tumb 3 Corseaux-En Seyton-on display 6, Cantonal Museum of Archeology and History.
A 3,200-year-old skull was recently uncovered in Turkey’s eastern Van province. This find was made even more intriguing by the skull’s clearly man-made triangle-shaped hole, indicating that the deceased owner had undergone an ancient medical procedure now called preparation.
Trepanation, a procedure that involves drilling a hole into the patient’s skull, is one of the oldest known surgical procedures in human history and a practice used by ancient humans all over the world.
Archaeologists have found trepanned skulls in Europe, the Americas, Africa and China.
Skull-drilling in the 21st century
The practice is still used today to treat subdural hematomas, but surgeons have refined the process and now refer to it as a craniotomy or a burr hole.
Burr holes tend to be used in emergency situations after a traumatic head injury to relieve pressure due to fluid buildup in the skull which puts undue pressure on brain tissue.
Craniotomies, per the National Cancer Institute, resemble ancient trepanation more so than burr holes; the surgeon removes a small piece of the skull in order to gain access to the brain.
This is sometimes used to relieve pressure, but can also be used to remove a tumour or a tissue sample, as well as to repair a skull fracture or brain aneurysm (a bulge in a blood vessel wall).
Unlike in ancient trepanation practices, modern surgeons nearly always replace the removed piece of the skull once they have finished their procedure.
Detail from The Extraction of the Stone of Madness, a painting by Hieronymus Bosch depicting trepanation (c.1488–1516).
What was the practice used for in ancient times?
According to the science news website Live Science, trepanation was used in ancient times to treat head injuries and pain, and some scientists believe it was used to ritually remove evil spirits from the body.
A 2013 article published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology concluded that often, patients did survive the procedure and would heal after surgery.
Researchers found scarring from trepanation, but the injury to the skull had healed.
Researchers have not yet determined whether the skull found recently in Turkey belonged to a survivor or a victim of trepanation. They also do not yet know – and perhaps never will find out – whether the procedure was performed in order to treat a medical issue or exorcise demons.
Archaeologists In Peru Unearth 800-year-old Mummy Buried In Underground Tomb In Lima
Recently on Peru’s central coast, archaeologists have discovered a mummy that is thought to be approximately 800 years old. The remains of the mummy were believed to match an individual who belonged to a society that flourished prior to the Inca Empire which rose to power during the 1400s.
Archaeologists claimed that the society was settled between Peru’s coastline and mountains, Sky News reported.
According to archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna of the State University of San Marcos, the mummified remains have been unearthed in an underground structure in the suburbs of Lima, the capital city of the nation.
However, the gender of the mummy has yet to be determined, as per the Independent. Further, archaeologist Dalen Luna claimed that the fossils belong to a person who has lived in the nation’s high Andean area.
‘The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up
“The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be part of the local funeral pattern,” Sky News reported, citing archaeologist Dalen Luna. He went on to explain that after evaluating carbon dating, more exact dates will be obtained. Further, it has been reported that Ceramics, vegetable remnants, as well as stone tools were also discovered within the tomb with the mummy.
As per the Sky News, hundreds of archaeological places are found in Peru which are from civilizations that existed during and after the Inca Empire. From the south of Ecuador and Colombia to central Chile, the empire ruled over the southern half of South America.
25 individuals were discovered in Peru’s ancient city of Chan Chan
Furthermore, earlier this month, archaeologists unearthed the bones of 25 individuals in Peru’s ancient city of Chan Chan.
According to BBC, the bones were excavated in a 10-square-meter area in what was once the Chim empire’s capital.
The collective grave, according to experts, was a burial location for Chim royalty. As per archaeologist Sinthya Cueva, the majority of the bones belonged to young women, all of them were under the age of 30.
According to local media, the burial also included roughly 50 pieces of pottery.
According to the British news organisation, even though the Chim was notorious for performing human sacrifices, particularly those of children, archaeologist Jorge Meneses Bartra claimed there was no confirmation that individuals found in the cemetery died as a result of human sacrifice, BBC reported.
One of the bones’ placements, according to Meneses, indicated that it was buried quickly after the individual died.
Scientists Reconstruct Face Of ‘world’s First Pregnant’ Egyptian Mummy, Died 2000 Yrs Ago
With an aim to re-humanize mummified individuals, Forensic scientists have reconstructed the face of the world’s first pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy more than 2,000 years after her death, using 2D and 3D techniques.
The Mummy known as ‘The Mystery Lady’ is believed to have died 28 weeks into her pregnancy between the ages around 20 and 30.
The embalmed woman was analyzed last year by a team of Polish researchers, who discovered evidence of a fetus inside her stomach.
Forensic experts have used her skull and other remains to produce two images showing what she may have looked like when alive in the first century BC.
Chantal Milani, an Italian forensic anthropologist and member of the Warsaw Mummy Project said, “Our bones and the skull, in particular, give a lot of information about the face of an individual.”
“Although it cannot be considered an exact portrait, the skull like many anatomical parts is unique and shows a set of shapes and proportions that will appear in the final face,” Chantal Milani further said.
The fetus was located in the lower part of the lesser pelvis: Warsaw Mummy Project
The Warsaw Mummy Project on Facebook wrote, “The face that covers the bone structure follows different anatomic rules, thus standard procedures can be applied to reconstruct it, for example, to establish the shape of the nose.”
As per reports, the fetus, which had been ‘pickled like a gherkin’, was located in the lower part of the lesser pelvis and partly in the lower part of the greater pelvis and was mummified together with its mother.
Its head circumference was 9.8 inches, which the forensic team used to determine it was between the 26th and 30th week of life.
Forensic artist Hew Morrison said, “Facial reconstruction is mainly used in forensics to help determine the identity of a body when more common means of identification such as fingerprint identification or DNA analysis have drawn a blank.
Reconstructing an individual’s face from their skull is often considered a last resort in an attempt to establish who they were.”
Notably, the mummy was taken out of Egypt and into Warsaw in December 1826, around the time of some of the most important discoveries from the Egyptian Valley of the Kings. Her body had been carefully wrapped in fabrics and left with a rich set of amulets to see her into the afterlife.
Here are some pictures of the facial reconstruction of ‘The Mysterious Lady’
Image: The facial reconstruction of ‘The Mysterious Lady’
Image: The embalmed woman was analyzed last year by a team of Polish researchers, and X-ray scans and CT images revealed evidence of a fetus inside her stomach.
Image: Forensic experts used her skull (pictured) and other remains to produce two images showing what ‘The Mysterious Lady; may have looked like when alive in the first century BC.
Image: The mummy was discovered in 2016 as an embalmed woman.
Image: An examination using tomographic imaging revealed that the woman was between 20-30 years old when she died and was in the 26th to 30th week of her pregnancy.
