Archaeologists discover a 1,200-yr-old luxurious mansion in southern Israel
ARCHAEOLOGISTS FROM THE ISRAEL ANTIQUES AUTHORITY (IAA) HAVE UNCOVERED A LUXURY ESTATE THAT DATES FROM THE ISLAMIC PERIOD.
The team made the discovery during works to build a new neighbourhood in the city of Rahat in the Negev desert, located in Southern Israel.
The region was formerly ruled by the Al-Tayaha tribe (Al-Hezeel clan), a Negev Bedouin people that settled in the Sinai Peninsula during the early years of the Muslim conquests.
Archaeologists found a large estate with a central courtyard that sits on a vaulted complex and a three-metre-deep rock-hewn water cistern which dates to the Early Islamic period from the 8th to 9th century AD.
The estate has four wings, in which one of the wings has a hall paved with a marble and stone floor and walls decorated with frescoes using finely coloured red, yellow, blue, and black pigments.
Some of the other rooms had plaster floors and large ovens for cooking, while fragments of delicate glass serving dishes have also been uncovered.
“The luxurious estate and the impressive underground vaults are evidence of the owners’ means.
Their high status and wealth allowed them to build a luxurious mansion that served as a residence and for entertaining”, said the excavation directors – Oren Shmueli, Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Dr. Noé D. Michael.
Eli Eskosido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority said: “The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin are planning together to conserve and exhibit the finds to the general public.”
St. Peter’s Birthplace Possibly Discovered By Archaeologists
In a stunning claim, archaeologists believe they have discovered the home of Peter and Andrew, principal followers of Jesus Christ.
A team led by archaeologists Mordechai Aviam and Steven Notley brought to light a large Greek inscription at a basilica of the Byzantine era of 1,200 years ago. The inscription refers to the donor “Constantine, the servant of Christ,” as well as an intercession naming St. Peter “chief and commander of the heavenly apostles.”
Constantine was emperor of Rome (306-337 AD) and was the first Christian ruler of the empire. The inscription is framed by a round medallion that is part of a larger mosaic floor consisting of tiles called “tesserae” that once graced the sacristy of the church. The floor also features swirling patterns of flowers.
A 1,500-year-old mosaic believed to be above Peter and Andrew’s home, in Galilee, Israel, in October 2021. Archaeologists had uncovered for the first time mosaic floors from a lost, legendary basilica reportedly built over the house of Jesus’ apostles Peter and Andrew in biblical Bethsaida.
As used by Christian writers of the Byzantine, or Roman Empire of the East, the title “chief and commander of the apostles” refers to Apostle Peter.
“This discovery is our strongest indicator that Peter had a special association with the basilica, and it was likely dedicated to him. Since Byzantine Christian tradition routinely identified Peter’s home in Bethsaida, and not in Capernaum as is often thought today, it seems likely that the basilica commemorates his house,” said Notley of Nyack College in New York City.
Archaeologist Mordechai Aviam cleans the inscription in Galilee, Israel, in August 2022. Archaeologists from Kinneret College in Israel and Nyack College in New York uncovered a large Greek inscription during excavations of what is being called the “Church of the Apostles,” a Byzantine period basilica at el Araj/Beit haBek believed to be built over the apostle’s Peter’s and Andrew’s home.
The archaeologists have dubbed the site the “Church of the Apostles.” The excavation took place in the Betiha nature preserve in Israel, undertaken by Nyack College and Kinneret College of Israel, and was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins, the Museum of the Bible, the Lanier Theological Library Foundation, and HaDavar Yeshiva.
It is part of efforts to seek the biblical Jewish village of Bethsaida, and its connections to the modern Beit HaBek (al-A’raj) area.
“One of the goals of this dig was to check whether we have at the site a layer from the 1st century, which will allow us to suggest a better candidate for the identification of Biblical Bethsaida. Not only did we find significant remains from this period, but we also found this important church and the monastery around it,” said Mordechai Aviam of Israel who directed the dig.
According to the team, the uncovering of the ancient inscription underscores the belief that the basilica is the same one described by Bishop Willibald of Eichstätt, an 8th century A.D. Catholic churchman who wrote that the church was built over the house of Peter and Andrew.
While Willibald was travelling from Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee to the village of Kursi, he overnighted at a place he was told “is Bethsaida from which came Peter and Andrew. There is now a church where previously was their house.”
Roman artefacts found at the site appear to support the witness of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote his seminal work “Jewish Antiquities” during the First Century of the Christian era that the village of Bethsaida became a Roman polis or town bearing the name Julias.
The uncovered inscription from the Church of the Apostles, in Galilee, Israel, in August 2022. Archaeologists from Kinneret College in Israel and Nyack College in New York uncovered a large Greek inscription during excavations of what is being called the Church of the Apostles, a Byzantine period basilica at el Araj/Beit haBek believed to be built over the apostles Peter’s and Andrew’s home.
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Peter was the first to declare the messiahship of Jesus and was thus considered the chief of the apostles.
The Catholic Church considers St. Peter the first of a line of popes extant until the present day. The prominence of St. Peter is demonstrated by the Basilica of St. Peter on Vatican Hill in Rome, over the place where he was crucified.
According to the excavators at what they believe is the Church of the Apostles, “It seems his home was likewise commemorated in Bethsaida.”
The archaeologists are cleaning up the site and hope to find further inscriptions confirming it as a shrine to the first pope, as well as its connections to ancient Israel.
Archaeologists unearth a 1,000-year-old Maya settlement in central Belize
A site first highlighted by a farming community in Belize is enabling archaeologists to piece together what life was like for Mayans living centuries ago.
Anthropology graduate students Rachel Gill and Yifan Wang study the remains of an ancient Maya neighbourhood in central Belize. This is an aerial photo of the archaeological site facing east. The white smudges are ancestral Maya mounds.
Modern archaeology is less often about finding big monuments and more about understanding how people lived. For anthropology graduate students Rachel Gill and Yifan Wang, that’s exactly what this site means.
“We stand in the open fields of Spanish Lookout, a modernized Mennonite farming community in Central Belize, looking at what remains of ancestral Maya homes after years of ploughing,” the two archaeologists write for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“White mounds, the remnants of these houses, pock the landscape as far as the eye can see, a stark reminder of what existed more than 1,000 years ago. The collapsed buildings look like smudges on an aerial photograph, but as archaeologists, we get to see them up close. With enough excavation and interpretation, we can eventually make sense of how these dwellings functioned in the deep human past,” they add.
Of course, analyzing an archaeological site first starts with finding it. These days, this is rarely done by going out and digging and hoping for the best — archaeologists have an array of remote sensing tools at their disposal that allow them to peer through the thick jungle and sometimes, even catch a glimpse of what might lie underneath the surface.
But when you have the site in your sights, you still have to analyze it, and this is what Gill and Wang are working on.
Oftentimes, us laypeople at least, focus too much on the imposing structures and cool artefacts found at archaeological sites. But if you want to truly understand a culture like the Maya, you have to look deeper.
Incised ceramic sherds were excavated from an ancestral Maya building.
The mundane realities of many Mayans aren’t captured in the imposing Maya pyramids or their worshipping complex, but they can be captured in things like pots and tools.
At the Maya site, the two archaeologists are looking at a collection of domestic vessels found for cooking, serving, and storage. The shapes and styles of this pottery enable the archaeologists to date it — one particular neighbourhood was dated to 250-600 AD. In addition, they found several agricultural tools made from chert — an uncrystallized rock with similar chemistry to quartz.
The houses in this neighbourhood would have had walls and plastered floors, as well as several vessels they would have used regularly. Regular Mayans would have used the chert tools to grind maize into flour. They complimented their diets by hunting animals in the forest.
Grinding tools typical of ancestral Maya farmsteads include, from left, a metate fragment, a round stone and a mano fragment. Metates and manos were used to grind maize.
But not everything is clear. For instance, one Maya building uses uniform stones and a different type of plaster than the others, and it’s not exactly clear why.
This building also has fewer artefacts and seems to be “cleaner” than the others. This suggests it would have been not a residential, but a community building. What type of community building, however, is not clear. It could have been a meeting place, a ritual site, or maybe even a recreation centre, but it’s not clear yet.
“We also partially exposed a substantial platform mound that had four structures at its summit. The structures surrounded a plaza or courtyard. It is clear that an elite family lived here. This mound would have been secluded, sectioned off from the rest of the neighbourhood, like the large house at the end of a cul-de-sac where, if you were lucky, you got invited for a pool party, much different from the community building,” the archaeologists explain.
Unfortunately, agriculture is also affecting some of the findings. As local farmers worked the land generation after generation, they dislodged and damaged some of the artefacts and structures. But nevertheless, the signs of the local community are still there. After over a thousand years, their houses, their streets, and the places where they would gather can still tell us stories if we know how to read them.
“The ghosts of those who lived on the land before walk between us, using what remains of their homes to whisper, ‘Remember me.’,” the archaeologists concluded.
Egypt to repatriate 16 artefacts recovered by authorities in the United States
Egypt is set to repatriate 16 artefacts that were stolen and smuggled out of the country after they were recovered by the authorities in the United States as part of their investigations into a major case of international trafficking in Egyptian antiquities.
The repatriation of these stolen artefacts was made possible through a collaborative effort between the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the one hand, and the Office of the Attorney General in New York, on the other hand, after the completion of all necessary investigations.
Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, the supervisor general of the Antiquities Repatriation Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, broke down the identity of the artefacts to be repatriated.
First, six artefacts were seized by the Manhattan District Attorney after they were recovered from the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City during the ongoing major investigation into the smuggling of Egyptian antiquities to the United States and France.
The six include a part of a painted coffin depicting the facial feature of a lady; limestone relief engraved with hieroglyphic text and an offering scene; five linen Fragments of a wall illustrating the biblical Book of Exodus that date back to between 250 and 450 BC; a bronze statue of a famed musician named Kemes; and a portrait depicting a Roman-era lady in Fayoum.
Second, nine of the artefacts were seized after they were found in the unlawful possession of an American businessman.
The nine include distinguished ancient Egyptian objects and a Ptolemaic-era coin.
All recovered artefacts will be handed over to the Egyptian Consulate in New York within days in order to make their way back home.
In June, New York prosecutors announced seizing five Egyptian artefacts worth more than $3 million from the Met as part of an investigation into international trafficking in Egyptian antiquities involving Jean-Luc Martinez, the former president of the Louvre museum, who was charged in May with complicity in fraud.
Decorative Heater Unearthed at 16th-Century Castle in Poland
Fragment of a cocklestove tile.
Beautiful Renaissance cockle stove tiles with the quality and style matching those from the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków have been discovered during research in the ruins of the stronghold in Żelechów (Masovian Voivodeship).
The research was conducted in August by archaeologists and historians from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
During this season, they focused on exploring the remains of the 16th-century court and the earlier, late medieval buildings located in the same place. The structures were part of a wooden castle.
Aerial view of this year’s excavations in Żelechów.
The head of research Wojciech Bis from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences told PAP – Science in Poland that excavations made it possible to determine that the wooden building used in the 16th century was destroyed by fire.
The archaeologists unearthed burnt beams and layers of burnt clay, which could have covered the walls and floor of the structure.
However, the most spectacular find – according to the researchers – turned out to be the remains of a cockle stove, which probably heated the representative room of the court.
Fragment of a cockle stove tile.
Bis said: “Among its remains, we found numerous, beautifully decorated tiles with rich geometric, plant and animal patterns. There were also images of fantastic animals, including griffin, human figures and coats of arms.”
Several hundred fragments of tiles have survived. They were mostly covered with colourful enamel: green, yellow, white and blue. According to the researchers, they probably ornamented a single cockle stove, the clay base of which has also survived.
So far, the researchers are unable to say where they originated from.
Fragment of a cocklestove tile.
However, the researchers say stoves covered with similar tiles decorated the Renaissance interiors of the Wawel Royal Castle. Some of them, especially decorative tops or tiles with rosette motifs, are almost identical stylistically to those at Wawel.
Research project participant, historian Maciej Radomski from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, said: “This proves that this building served representatives of the then social elites of the Commonwealth.”
In addition to Renaissance tiles, scientists found fragments of ceramic vessels. Among them were thin-walled table dishes designed for serving meals and kitchen utensils for the preparation of dishes.
They included pots and pans on three legs. In addition, numerous post-consumption animal bones with traces of cutting and chopping were found, mainly from pigs and oxen. This is evidence of abundant feasts at the castle.
Fragment of a cocklestove tile.
Archaeologists also discovered coins. The oldest of them is the silver penny Wenceslaus IV (1378-1419), as well as several copper schillings minted during the reign of John II Casimir, called Boratyki. In addition, interesting finds from the researchers’ point of view were two spurs discovered near the 16th-century court building, probably lost in the muddy surroundings of the buildings.
The wetland, swampy area promotes the preservation of many artefacts, including wooden structures. Many of them have survived to this day, which is not a common phenomenon among the remains of buildings from hundreds of years ago, the researchers emphasise.
The search for the Żelechów castle took several years. Historians knew from a few mentions that there was a stronghold in this town in the Middle Ages. Its relics were located a few years ago with ALS and other methods that do not even require driving a shovel into the ground. It is located northwest of the Żelechów market, near fish ponds.
The excavations started in 2017. In subsequent seasons of excavations, the researchers managed to unearth well-preserved wooden fragments of the medieval castle. It was previously thought that underground there were massive brick or stone remains of the foundation of the structure.
Archaeological excavation in Żelechów.
The castle was not lucky. It was probably built in the mid-15th century and most likely abandoned by the Ciołek family at the beginning of the 16th century. According to the researcher, disagreements between magnates contributed to this. The seat of the Ciołek family was temporarily taken over by Feliks of Zielanka.
Before the middle of the 16th century, the castle probably returned to the hands of previous owners, but soon a significant part of the buildings was consumed by fire. It continued to function in some form and operated until the mid-17th century, as evidenced by coins from the later period discovered during excavations, the researchers believe.
Numerous volunteers, members of the Żelechów Historical Society, the Municipal Engineering Department in Żelechów and the Volunteer Fire Brigade in Żelechów were involved in this year’s research. The implementation of research was financially and organizationally supported by the Żelechów municipality. Excavations were conducted courtesy of the plot owner, Stanisław Kawka.
1.8-Million-Year-Old Tooth Found in the South Caucasus
The 1.8m-year-old tooth was found near Orozmani, Georgia.
Archaeologists in Georgia have found a 1.8m-year-old tooth belonging to an early species of human that they say cements the region as the home of one of the earliest prehistoric human settlements in Europe, and possibly anywhere outside Africa.
The tooth was discovered near the village of Orozmani, which lies about 60 miles south-west of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and is near Dmanisi, where human skulls dated to 1.8m years old were found in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The Dmanisi finds were the oldest such discovery anywhere in the world outside Africa, and changed scientists’ understanding of early human evolution and migration patterns.
The latest discovery at a site about 12 miles away provides yet more evidence that the mountainous south Caucasus area was probably one of the first places early humans settled after migrating out of Africa, experts said.
“Orozmani, together with Dmanisi, represents the centre of the oldest distribution of old humans – or early Homo – in the world outside Africa,” the National Research Centre of Archaeology and Prehistory of Georgia said.
The dig site near Orozmani.
Giorgi Bidzinashvili, the scientific leader of the dig team, said he thought the tooth belonged to a “cousin” of Zezva and Mzia, the names given to the people whose near-complete 1.8m-year-old fossilised skulls were found at Dmanisi.
Jack Peart, a British archaeology student who found the tooth at Orozmani, said: “The implications not just for this site but for Georgia and the story of humans leaving Africa 1.8m years ago are enormous.
It solidifies Georgia as a really important place for paleoanthropology and the human story in general.”
The oldest Homo fossils anywhere in the world date to about 2.8m years ago – a partial jaw discovered in modern-day Ethiopia.
Scientists believe early humans, a hunter-gatherer species named Homo erectus, probably started migrating out of Africa about 2m years ago.
Ancient tools dated to about 2.1m years have been discovered in modern-day China, but the Georgian sites are home to the oldest remains of early humans yet recovered outside Africa.
Remains of up to 100 children were found during a dig at a holy site in Wales
The remains were found in a long-lost holy site in Pembrokeshire.
The bodies of 100 children have been discovered in what is believed to be an ancient burial ground.
Archaeologists in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, made the grim discovery.
They had been excavating an area surrounding the mysterious St Saviours, a suspected friary which dates back more than 600 years.
Archaeologists found hundreds of skeletons at the historic site. Experts explained that ‘extraordinarily, one-third of these remains are infants under the age of four.’
A strange puncture wound was even found in one of the skulls excavated, the Western Telegraph reported.
The injury could have been caused by ‘projectile fired’ which could indicate ‘the first suggestion of medieval warfare in the town’.
St Saviours itself was stumbled upon by builders digging foundations for a new bar in Haverfordwest.
Archaeologists made the gruesome discovery
Head of the Dyfed Archaeological Trust, Fran Murphy, says financial transactions recorded by a local church indicate the existence of the friary.
There could be around 300 corpses at the ancient burial ground, but the Trust is hesitant on putting an exact finger on the total just yet.
‘We know it’s there because of a series of monastic references, mainly records about money,’ said Miss Murphy.
‘At its height, there were apparently eight friars who were part of the friary before it was dissolved and passed into private hands.
‘It was dissolved in the 1530s with one of the friars scrubbing his name from the list of friars at the priory which is peculiar and might have been a protest to its closing.’
The medieval friary is thought to date back more than 600 years
The friary of the Dominican Order is believed to have stood in Haverfordwest for about three centuries.
The Dominicans, or Black Friars, had a different agenda than most monastic orders in that they went amongst the population, preaching, praying and teaching.
DAT Archaeological Services started work at the site known as Ocky Whites in February and is scheduled to be at the site until next January.
The old Ocky Whites building is currently being redeveloped into a three-storey local food and beverage emporium with a bar and rooftop terrace.
Ancient statue unearthed at Cambodia’s Angkor temple complex
A team of archaeologists has uncovered a large ancient statue that is thought to have once stood as a guard over an ancient hospital to the north of Cambodia’s Angkor Thom city complex.
Impressive Ancient Statue Unearthed in Angkor Thom Complex
The almost two-meters tall statue, which is believed to be from the late 12th to the early 13th century, was spotted during a dig in Siem Reap province last Saturday, as I’m Sokrithy, an archaeologist with the Apsara Authority, the government organization managing Angkor Park, and the dig’s scientific supervisor stated.
“We were very surprised to find this,” he told Cambodia Daily, and added that the sandstone statue is missing its feet and parts of its legs, otherwise it would have stood at least 2.1 meters (in its original form) and weighed in at 200kg (440 pounds).
Archaeologists made a grid to draw the statue which is in the form of a guard, before moving it
The Angkor Archaeological Park is Cambodia’s most popular tourist attraction and a world heritage site due to the many remains it boasts from the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the 9th to the 15th centuries.
During the peak of its power, the city hosted hundreds of temples and more than a million citizens, making it one of the planet’s most populous pre-industrial cities.
The statue was found next to one of four hospitals which were discovered in Angkor Thon a century ago. It is one of 102 that King Jayavarman VII had constructed in the Angkor empire.
“Jayavarman VII’s reign was truly remarkable in terms of social programs,” he said. “The hospital consisted of wooden buildings and a chapel erected in stones. What is left is the chapel…as wooden structures have long disappeared,” explained Tan Boun Suy, deputy director-general for the Apsara Authority as reported by Cambodia Daily.
The Great Sacred City of Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom (which means ‘Great City’) was the last capital of the mighty Khmer Empire, which was based in modern-day Cambodia. As previously reported in another Ancient Origins article, this typically intricately decorated Khmer city, which is located in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, was fortified by massive walls, which in turn surrounded a great moat.
In order to enter this protected city, one had to cross one of Angkor Thom’s enormous causeways. As a capital city, Angkor Thom contained numerous important structures, including temples, royal residences, and administrative buildings. Today, Angkor Thom is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Angkor, which also includes the famous Temple of Angkor Wat.
The archaeology team respectfully ask the spirit protecting the site permission to move the statue they unearthed the previous day to the Preah Sihanouk Museum in Siem Reap province.
Angkor Thom was founded around the later part of the 12 th century AD, during the reign of Jayavarman VII, who is often regarded as the greatest king of the Khmer Empire. This city was established following the sacking of the previous capital, Angkor, by the Chams during the reign of Jayavarman’s predecessor.
The layout of Jayavarman’s new capital was in the shape of an almost perfect square, which was separated from the surrounding areas by a circuit of huge walls, and a moat reported to have contained crocodiles.
In order to enter Angkor Thom, a visitor would need to pass through one of the five monumental gates that are found along the city walls. The northern, southern and western walls each have a gate, whilst the eastern one has two.
Additionally, these gates are reached via causeways that cross the moat. These causeways are flanked by 54 statues on each side, demons on the right, and gods on the left.
The demons may be identified by their fearsome facial expressions and military headdresses, whilst the gods look calm and are wearing conical headdresses. At the beginning of each causeway is the statue of a nine-headed serpent, whose body is held by the gods and demons. This arrangement depicts the famous Hindu myth known as the ‘Churning of the Ocean’.
Statues at the South Gate of Angkor Thom in Cambodia, with gods holding the 9-headed serpent.
Angkor Thom Today and the Importance of Recent Find
In recent years, vast parts of the park have been excavated, creating a marvellous archaeological walking path that attracts more than two million visitors a year. However, the famed complex of the historic city still remains a mystery that hasn’t been fully explored.
The recent finding is clear proof of this. Maybe that’s why when the Cambodian archaeologists from Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies found the beautiful statue buried only 40 centimetres under the ground of the Angkor-era hospital, they couldn’t believe their eyes. As Cambodia Daily reports, archaeologists now suggest that the statue most likely served as a symbolic guardian of the hospital and hope that the excavation will unearth more objects from that era, which could shed light on the daily life and activities in those hospitals and also the lives of ordinary people of the era.
The excavation is conducted by the Apsara Authority in cooperation with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies’ Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. As part of a training program, ten students from Asian countries, the U.S. and Australia are taking part in the excavation.
