ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

U.K. Archaeologists Make a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Discovery: Three Well-Preserved Roman Busts Buried Along a Future Railway

U.K. Archaeologists Make a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Discovery: Three Well-Preserved Roman Busts Buried Along a Future Railway

In an unexpected find, archaeologists in England have unearthed three Roman busts near the ruins of an abandoned medieval church roughly 50 miles outside of London. 

U.K. Archaeologists Make a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Discovery: Three Well-Preserved Roman Busts Buried Along a Future Railway
Dr. Rachel Wood with one of the adult Roman busts discovered at the St Mary’s Archaeological dig in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire.

Two of the stone statues, found surprisingly intact, depict the faces and torsos of an adult man and woman, while the third represents the head of a child.

All are characteristic of early Roman sculpture, suggesting that they may date to when England belonged to the Roman Empire from A.D. 43 to about A.D. 410.

“The statues are exceptionally well preserved, and you really get an impression of the people they depict,” said Rachel Wood, the leading archaeologist on the dig, in an announcement. “Literally looking into the faces of the past is a unique experience.” 

Wood and her team excavated the objects at the remains of St. Mary’s Church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, where they’ve been at work for the last six months on a dig funded by the national Department of Transport.

The site sits in the path of the controversial new HS2 high-speed railway, which will connect corners of the United Kingdom over three phases of construction. (The first, a 140-mile passage from London to the West Midlands region, is expected to open between 2029 and 2033.)

It is one of some 60 sites along the future route that have been flagged for excavation, although detractors point out that a 2013 HS2 environmental impact survey identified nearly 1,000 potential sites. 

A Norman house of worship, St. Mary’s was erected in 1080, renovated in the 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries, and then abandoned in the late 19th century, according to the Guardian. Prior to that, the spot may have been home to a Bronze Age burial site, experts believe, followed by a Roman mausoleum.

An ancient glass vessel was unearthed at the St. Mary’s archaeological dig.

At the same site, researchers also uncovered a well-preserved hexagonal glass jug, which is similarly believed to be Roman and more than 1,000 years old, as well as roof tiles, cremation urns, and pieces of painted plaster.

The archaeologists compared the jug to one currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

The objects are being moved to a laboratory for further cleaning and examination, the statement explained. Where they’ll end up after that has not yet been determined. 

“Of course, it leads us to wonder what else might be buried beneath England’s medieval village churches,” Wood added. “This has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime site, and we are all looking forward to hearing what more the specialists can tell us about these incredible statues and the history of the site before the construction of the Norman church.”

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

A 19-Year-Old Intern Unearthed a Rare, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger in a Tiny German Town

A 19-Year-Old Intern Unearthed a Rare, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger in a Tiny German Town

A 19-Year-Old Intern Unearthed a Rare, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger in a Tiny German Town
A restorer of the LWL-Archaeology for Westphalia holds a 2,000-year-old dagger in his hands in North Rhine-Westphalia, Münster on February 14, 2020.

An intern working for the Westphalie Department for the Preservation and Care of Field Monuments in Germany shocked his employers when he uncovered a rare Roman dagger at an archaeological site.  

Likely used in battles against the Germanic tribes in the first century AD, the 2,000-year-old object was unearthed last April at Haltern am See, a small town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

It was an extremely rare find for the team of archaeologists, and one made even more special for the well-preserved state in which the dagger was found.

“The discovery of the dagger was emotional. We were lost for words,” Bettina Tremmel, an archaeologist working for the Westphalie Department told Live Science. “Imagine: Though thousands of Roman soldiers were stationed in Haltern over almost 15 years or more, there are only a few finds of weapons, especially complete and intact ones.”

The dagger was corroded to the point of being unrecognizable when Nico Calman, the 19-year-old man on work-study unearthed it and the remains of a decorated leather belt from the grave of a soldier. But after a rigorous restoration effort that lasted nine months, conservators in Germany unveiled the ornate 13-inch-long weapon and its bejewelled sheath underneath the grime this week.

Eugen Müsch, at right, a restorer of the LWL-Archaeology for Westphalia and the 19-year-old Nico Calmund, trainee and finder, hold a 2,000-year-old dagger of a legionnaire in their hands.

Silver and brass adorn the dagger’s handle, while its iron scabbard features inlaid wood, glass, and red enamel.

The weapon likely belonged to a legionary or auxiliary infantryman or a centurion officer in the Roman army, Tremmel says. But why the weapon was buried with its owner remains a mystery, she says, explaining that “it was not the normal practice for Roman soldiers to be buried with their military equipment.” 

Located at the edge of the Roman empire, Haltern am See was home to a large military camp during the Augustan period (27 BC to AD 14), where three legions of soldiers, each consisting of some 5,000 men, were slain by Germanic tribes.

Roman fighters killed during the battles were buried at a cemetery nearby.

Despite archaeological digs taking place at the site for nearly 200 years, a weapon as sophisticated and well-preserved as the dagger has never before been found.

The newly restored dagger will go on view in Haltern’s Roman history museum beginning in 2022.

EUROPE, WORLD

Winepress Found at Georgia’s Roman Fort of Apsaros

Winepress Found at Georgia’s Roman Fort of Apsaros

Winepress Found at Georgia’s Roman Fort of Apsaros
Remains of the wine press immediately after soil removal and cleaning.

The well-preserved remains of an ancient winepress have been found near the Roman fort Apsaros (today’s Gonio near Batumi, Georgia).

According to the Polish-Georgian team of archaeologists, the installation almost certainly formed part of a farm producing wine for the Roman troops. The winepress was located a few hundred meters from the garrison. 

Polish team leader, Dr. Radosław Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw said: “From the point of view of the military regulations, this area should be clear. But people have always been interested in doing businesses. Therefore, brothels were built near this and other Roman camps, and, in this case, a winepress.”

The Georgian side is represented by Shota Mamuladze from the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Adjara.

Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski added that businesses near camps were often owned by veterans – retired soldiers who, thanks to good contacts with the camp command, started lucrative activity. Both legionaries and auxiliary troops (soldiers who did not have Roman citizenship), were probably stationed in Apsaros.

After examining the installation the archaeologists were able to also guess the kind of wine that was produced there.

Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski said: “It had to be Kvevri wine we also know from today’s Georgia. The wine fermented in clay vessels buried below ground. It had a very different taste from the wine aged in barrels or steel tanks. The wine was earthy and sweet.”

The Polish-Georgian expedition is carrying out research within the walls of the fort and outside the fortress. The winepress was discovered outside the walls with laser scanning (LiDAR), which revealed terrain anomalies.

Polish-Georgian team during excavations

The installation was used in the 2nd and 3rd century CE, when the Roman garrison was stationed in Apsaros.

Archaeologists believe that the installation almost certainly formed part of a farm producing wine for local needs, including for the Roman troops.

Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski said: “It is worth noting that the winepress has structural features typical of the local winemaking tradition but hydraulic mortar characteristic of Roman constructions was used to seal the working surface and the must tank.

The winepress is thus a testimony to the exchange of ideas on the border between the Roman Empire and the local Kingdom of Iberia.”

The successes of this year’s expedition, which took place in spring, also include the discovery of a large number of items used to write and illuminate the workplace.

Thanks to these finds, the researchers received confirmation of earlier assumptions that the building discovered in previous years served as the headquarters (principia) – the most important building in a Roman garrison.

Polish-Georgian excavations in the Roman fort Apsaros have been conducted since 2014. This is today’s Gonio, located near the holiday resort Batumi in West Georgia.

As part of the research project, a number of significant discoveries have already been made, including a mosaic floor in the garrison commander’s house. This is a unique discovery in Georgia. Today, Gonio is one of the major tourist attractions near Batumi.

Apsaros (as the fortress was known among the ancients), was built approx. 2,000 years ago on the border of the Roman province of Cappadocia. Due to its strategic location, the fort had an important role in the defence system of the eastern borders of the Roman Empire.

Today, picturesque ruins remain. Only fortifications are well preserved. Their interior is mostly an empty space with some outlines of the foundations of old buildings. Near the fortress there was once the only convenient road from Colchis (Western Georgia) to the Roman provinces in Asia Minor.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Residues in Mesopotamia’s Mass-Produced Pottery Analyzed

Residues in Mesopotamia’s Mass-Produced Pottery Analyzed

Residues in Mesopotamia’s Mass-Produced Pottery Analyzed
Bevelled Rim Bowls

The world’s first urban state societies developed in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, some 5500 years ago. No other artefact type is more symbolic of this development than the so-called Beveled Rim Bowl (BRB), the first mass-produced ceramic bowl.

BRB function and what food(s) these bowls contained have been the subject of debate for over a century. A paper published today in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports shows that BRBs contained a variety of foods, but especially meat-based meals, most likely bone marrow-flavoured stews or broths.

Chemical compounds and stable isotope signatures of animal fats were discovered in BRBs from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora located in the Upper Diyala/Sirwan River Valley of north-eastern Iraq.

An international team led by Professor Claudia Glatz of the University of Glasgow has been carrying out excavations at Shakhi Kora since 2019 as part of the Sirwan Regional Project.

Trench at Shakhi Kora where Beveled Rim Bowls were found.

BRBs are mass-produced, thick-walled, conical vessels that appear to spread from southern, lowland sites such as Uruk-Warka across northern Mesopotamia, into the Zagros foothills, and beyond. BRBs are found in their thousands at Late Chalcolithic sites, often associated with monumental structures.

Stylised BRBs appear on the earliest written documents, early cuneiform tablets, and are conventionally interpreted as ration containers used to distribute cereals or cereal-based foods to state-dependent labourers or personnel. Inherently taxable and storable, cereal grains such as wheat, emmer, and barley, have long been considered the economic backbone and main source of wealth and power for early state institutions and their elites.

However, the paper titled “Revealing invisible stews: New results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq” states: “Our analytical results challenge traditional interpretations that see BRBs as containers of cereal-based rations and bread moulds. The presence of meat- and potentially also dairy-based foods in the Shakhi Kora vessels lends support to multi-purpose explanations and points to local processes of appropriation of vessel meaning and function.”

Dr Elsa Perruchini, Institut National du Patrimoine, Paris, and University of Glasgow, who carried out the chemical analysis, said: “The combined approach of chemical and isotopic analysis using GC-MS and GC-C-IRMS was employed to identify the source(s) of lipids extracted from ceramic sherds, with the aim of providing new insights into the function of BRBs.”

Professor Claudia Glatz, a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and director of the Shakhi Kora excavations, said: “Our results present a significant advance in the study of early urbanism and the emergence of state intuitions.

“They demonstrate that there is significant local variation in the ways in which BRBs were used across Mesopotamia and what foods were served in them, challenging overly state-centric models of early social complexity.

“Our results point towards a great deal of local agency in the adoption and re-interpretation of the function and social symbolism of objects, that are elsewhere unambiguously associated with state institutions and specific practices.

As a result, they open up exciting new avenues of research on the role of food and foodways in the development, negotiation, and possible rejection of the early state at the regional and local level.”

Professor Jaime Toney, Professor of Environmental and Climate Science at the University’s School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, said: “We have been collaborating closely with Claudia and her team for several years to minimise contamination during the collection of vessels from archaeological sites and it is fascinating to see this pay off with the analysis of fossil residues and the stable isotope analysis clearly indicate that they once held animal fats.”

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Spider Monkey at Teotihuacan May Have Been a Maya Gift

Spider Monkey at Teotihuacan May Have Been a Maya Gift

The complete skeletal remains of a spider monkey — seen as an exotic curiosity in pre-Hispanic Mexico — grants researchers new evidence regarding social-political ties between two ancient powerhouses: Teotihuacán and Maya Indigenous rulers. 

The discovery was made by Nawa Sugiyama, a UC Riverside anthropological archaeologist, and a team of archaeologists and anthropologists who since 2015 have been excavating at Plaza of Columns Complex, in Teotihuacán, Mexico.

The remains of other animals were also discovered, as well as thousands of Maya-style mural fragments and over 14,000 ceramic sherds from a grand feast. These pieces are more than 1,700 years old.

The spider monkey is the earliest evidence of primate captivity, translocation, and gift diplomacy between Teotihuacán and the Maya.

Details of the discovery will be published in the journal PNAS. This finding allows researchers to piece evidence of high diplomacy interactions and debunks previous beliefs that Maya presence in Teotihuacán was restricted to migrant communities, said Sugiyama, who led the research. 

The complete 1,700-year-old skeletal remains of a female spider monkey were found in Teotihuacán, Mexico.

“Teotihuacán attracted people from all over, it was a place where people came to exchange goods, property, and ideas. It was a place of innovation,” said Sugiyama, who is collaborating with other researchers, including Professor Saburo Sugiyama, co-director of the project and a professor at Arizona State University, and Courtney A.

Hofman, a molecular anthropologist with the University of Oklahoma. “Finding the spider monkey has allowed us to discover reassigned connections between Teotihuacán and Maya leaders.

The spider monkey brought to life this dynamic space, depicted in the mural art. It’s exciting to reconstruct this live history.”

Researchers applied a multimethod archaeometric (zooarchaeology, isotopes, ancient DNA, palaeobotany, and radiocarbon dating) approach to detail the life of this female spider monkey. The animal was likely between 5 and 8 years old at the time of death.

Its skeletal remains were found alongside a golden eagle and several rattlesnakes, surrounded by unique artefacts, such as fine greenstone figurines made of jade from the Motagua Valley in Guatemala, copious shell/snail artefacts, and lavish obsidian goods such as blades and projectiles points.

This is consistent with the evidence of the live sacrifice of symbolically potent animals participating in state rituals observed in Moon and Sun Pyramid dedicatory caches, researchers stated in the paper.

Nawa Sugiyama, a UC Riverside anthropological archaeologist, at work in Teotihuacán, Mexico.

Results from the examination of two teeth, the upper and lower canines, indicate the spider monkey in Teotihuacán ate maize and chilli peppers, among other food items. The bone chemistry, which offers insight into the diet and environmental information, indicates at least two years of captivity. Prior to arriving in Teotihuacán, it lived in a humid environment, eating primarily plants and roots.

The research is primarily funded by grants awarded to Sugiyama from the National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. Teotihuacán is a pre-Hispanic city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site and receives more than three million visitors annually. 

In addition to studying ancient rituals and uncovering pieces of history, the finding allows for a reconstruction of greater narratives, of understanding how these powerful, advanced societies dealt with social and political stressors that very much reflect today’s world, Sugiyama said. 

“This helps us understand principles of diplomacy, to understand how urbanism developed … and how it failed,” Sugiyama said. “Teotihuacán was a successful system for over 500 years, understanding past resilience, its strengths and weaknesses are relevant in today’s society. There are many similarities between then and now. Lessons can be seen and modelled from past societies; they provide us with cues as we go forward.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

British Teenager Discovers Rare Bronze Age Ax Hoard

British Teenager Discovers Rare Bronze Age Ax Hoard

Milly Hardwick was searching for buried treasure in a field in Hertfordshire, England when her metal detector pinged. The 13-year-old’s father, Colin, joked that she’d found an axe. He was partially right: Hardwick had, in fact, stumbled onto a trove of 65 Bronze Age axes and artefacts dated to around 1300 B.C.E.

British Teenager Discovers Rare Bronze Age Ax Hoard
The 13-year-old discovered the cache on her third metal-detecting outing.

“I was shocked,” the teenager, who made the discovery on her third metal-detecting outing, tells Sarah Cooper of ITV News Anglia. “I almost fainted. I was like, ‘Dad, I’m going to faint!’”

Per Jacob Paul of the Express, Hardwick’s mother, Claire, adds, “A lot of people have said it’s a once-in-a-lifetime find.”

Milly Hardwick’s discovery earned her a spot on the cover of a British magazine. Courtesy of the Searcher magazine

At first, the father and daughter—residents of Mildenhall in Suffolk—dug up just a single bronze ax head. Keeping at it, they soon unearthed 20 more artefacts. Archaeologists brought in to excavate the site discovered the rest of the hoard the following day, reports BBC News.

Though she is new to the hobby, Hardwick appears to have a natural ability for locating artifacts.

“Whenever I go out, I find stuff,” she says, as quoted by Ben Turner of SWNS and Nick Wood of Suffolk Live. “I’ve found a gold-plated button and [an Elizabethan] coin. It’s just nice being in the field for hours and you get a signal and it could literally be anything.”

According to English Heritage, Britain’s Bronze Age began around 2300 B.C.E. During this period, ancient Britons mined copper and tin to smelt into axes, chisels, hammers, sickles and other tools.

The newly discovered cache dates to the Middle Bronze Age, which took place between about 1600 and 1200 B.C.E.

Hardwick and her father turned the find over to the local coroner’s office, which is responsible for determining if it qualifies as treasure. Next, reports BBC News, the cache will head to the British Museum, which manages archaeological finds made by the English public through its Portable Antiquities Scheme.

In accordance with the United Kingdom’s 1996 Treasure Act, a museum may decide to purchase the artefacts after they’ve been assessed and valued. If offered any money for the hoard, the young metal detectorist plans to split the proceeds with the field’s owner.

Hardwick’s discovery has caught the attention of other treasure seekers, even earning her a spot on the cover of the December issue of the Searcher magazine.

“The other metal detectorists are really pleased for her,” the teenager’s mother tells SWNS. Still, Claire adds, “On a couple of digs, people have gone, ‘Oh, she’s here now so we might as well go home.’”

Now bitten by the treasure-hunting bug, Hardwick wants to be an archaeologist when she grows up. In the meantime, she will continue searching for more artefacts.

“We’re going to try and find gold,” she tells ITV News Anglia. “That’s the one thing we’re aiming for, and when we do, we’re going to do a little dance.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Medieval gold cross found by Norwich detectorist sells for £12K

Medieval gold cross found by Norwich detectorist sells for £12K

Medieval gold cross found by Norwich detectorist sells for £12K
The 31mm-long (1.2in) cross sold for more than its estimated price at the auction

A roofing contractor who found a medieval gold cross in a muddy field said he was “over the moon” after it sold at auction for £12,400. Jason Willis, 38, from Norwich, found the 11th or 12th Century cross while metal detecting at Sutton St Edmund, Lincolnshire, in April 2019.

He said he “knew it was something special by the shining yellow colour”.

Now known as the Throckenholt Cross, it fetched more than its estimated upper limit of £8,000 at auction earlier.

Mr Willis, who took up metal detecting as a hobby with some of his friends, said: “When I came upon the cross and washed it off, I knew it was something special, and by the shining yellow colour – I knew it was gold.

“I handed it to our local finds liaison officer and after two years, of going through the treasure process, the cross was returned to me and I was told that I could now sell it.”

The cross was found by a roofer who took up detecting as a hobby

Frances Noble, head of the jewellery department and associate director of auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb, said the pendant was of a “form associated with medieval Greek Orthodoxy in the eastern Baltic region” and said that a “very similar example was discovered in Denmark”.

“King’s Lynn, on the north Norfolk coast, just 20 miles from Sutton St Edmund, was a significant trading partner for the Hanseatic League [a commercial and defensive alliance of merchant guilds and market towns in central and northern Europe], and this trade link may provide a possible explanation for these two very similar cross pendants,” he said.

The auction house’s artefacts and antiquities consultant, Nigel Mills, suggested the cross could have been connected with the medieval hermitage and chapel at Throckenholt, which is within the Sutton St Edmund parish and existed until at least 1540.

The cross was estimated to sell for between £6,000 and £8,000, but including the buyer’s premium, the final price was £12,400.

Following the sale, detectorist Mr Willis said: “I am a roofer and I was working today, so I watched the sale over my phone while sitting on a roof.

“I am over the moon, and as I have just moved house, the money will go towards new items for the house.”

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Amateur Metal Detectorists in Scotland Have Unearthed a Stash of 8,400 Medieval Coins

Amateur Metal Detectorists in Scotland Have Unearthed a Stash of 8,400 Medieval Coins

New Abbey and Sweetheart Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

Some used pandemic downtime to learn how to crochet or brew a batch of kombucha. In Scotland, many escaped the boredom of lockdown restrictions by taking up metal detecting—so much so the country’s Treasure Trove Unit is struggling to keep up.

Most recently, the government organization responsible for investigating, handling, and archiving the discoveries of amateur detectorists announced the Dunscore Hoard, one of the biggest discoveries in Scottish history.

Last summer, 8,400 medieval silver coins were found in a field close to Dumfries, a southwestern town 25 miles from the Anglo-Scottish border.

Named after the nearby Dumfriesshire village, the Dunscore Hoard is the largest uncovered in Scotland since the 19th century and is primarily comprised of Edward I and II pennies dating from the 13th to 14th century—a period of frequent war between England and Scotland that cast forth characters such as William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

“The hoard is still being catalogued,” Ken McNab, Senior Communications Officer at Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, told Artnet News. “It’s an ongoing process and we don’t have a timetable at this point.”

This process involves identifying, photographing, measuring, and weighing each coin before museum allocations are decided.

The hoard contains a mix of English, Irish, Scottish, and mainland European coins. Although a value is yet to be determined, the size, breadth, and rareness of the hoard means it is likely worth several hundred thousand dollars.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVDSMIOqEen/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e9c64cb4-64d0-4dd6-9dbc-5e5068b75702

In May 2020, the Treasure Trove Unit concluded a multiyear survey of Scotland’s hobbyist metal detecting scene and estimated the number of active hobbyists at 520.

Their number seems to have ballooned since the beginning of the pandemic, with the Treasure Trove Unit reporting 12,263 artefacts found so far in 2022, compared to around 1,500 in 2019.

“The team has had to take on more staff to help process items found post-Covid,” McNab said.

Fortunately, the survey showed the hobbyists have a high awareness of the country’s heritage legislation and are keen to work more closely with the heritage sector in the coming years. Expect more finds like the Dunscore Hoard.

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