NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Ice Age human footprints found in Utah desert, thanks to a chance glance out of a moving car: “Lost oasis”

Ice Age human footprints found in Utah desert, thanks to a chance glance out of a moving car: “Lost oasis”

In total, 88 footprints were discovered, including both adult and child footprints. These footprints provide insight into family life during the Pleistocene.

Cornell researcher Thomas Urban discovered footprints on the salt flats of the Utah Testing and Training Range (UTTR) believed to date from the end of the last ice age.

A footprint discovered on an archaeological site is marked with a pin flag on the Utah Test and Training Range, July 18, 2022.

During a trip to UTTR, Urban and Daron Duke of Far Western Anthropological Research Group noticed what Urban thought were “ghost tracks” – tracks that can appear for a short period and then disappear when moisture conditions are right.

When Urban stopped to look, he recognized what was familiar to him: unshod human footprints, similar to those in White Sands National Park, considered the oldest known human footprints in the Americas.

“It was a truly serendipitous find,” said Urban, a research scientist in the College of Arts and Sciences and with the Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory.

A ground-penetrating radar survey of one of the two visible trackways was conducted by Urban the day after they returned to the site. He quickly identified what was hidden from his previous experience applying geophysical methods at White Sands, including radar.

Urban explained that the ghost tracks visible at White Sands were only part of the story. “Radar detected several additional invisible prints.”

During Duke’s excavations, he confirmed that the prints were made barefoot and that there were additional prints that had not been seen.

In total, 88 footprints were discovered, including both adult and child footprints. These footprints provide insight into family life during the Pleistocene period.

A press release from the Air Force reported that excavations of several prints showed evidence of adults leaving bare footprints with children between the ages of five and 12 years old.

“People appear to have been walking in shallow water, the sand rapidly infilling their print behind them – much as you might experience on a beach – but under the sand was a layer of mud that kept the print intact after infilling.”

Duke said the prints are likely older than 12,000 years, as there haven’t been wetland conditions in this remote area of the Great Salt Lake desert for at least 10,000 years.

To confirm the discovery, further research is being conducted.

Anya Kitterman, the Air Force Cultural Resource Manager for the area, said, “We found so much more than we bargained for.”

In the UTTR, Urban found two open-air hearths from the Ice Age dating back to the end of the Ice Age at the request of Duke. One of these hearth sites contained the earliest evidence of tobacco use by humans. The recently discovered footprints were about a half-mile away from those hearths.

According to Urban, the site is important on a broader scale. “We have long wondered whether other sites like White Sands were out there and whether ground-penetrating radar would be effective for imaging footprints at locations other than White Sands since it was a very novel application of the technology,” he said. “The answer to both questions is ‘yes.’”

While the Utah site is not as old and may not be as extensive as White Sands, Urban said there might be much more to be found.

ASIA, IRAN, WORLD

Have Scholars Finally Deciphered a Mysterious Ancient Script?

Have Scholars Finally Deciphered a Mysterious Ancient Script?

A mysterious writing system that is nearly as old as cuneiform but used a different set of symbols and that has remained undeciphered for centuries may have finally been deciphered.

Have Scholars Finally Deciphered a Mysterious Ancient Script?
Over the past century, archaeologists have uncovered more than 1,600 Proto-Elamite inscriptions, but only about 43 in Linear Elamite, scattered widely across Iran.

Based on ancient silver vessels, the researchers propose a new method for decoding the Linear Elamite script, which contains 80 symbols written left to right in vertical columns.

Ancient writing systems are among the most difficult to crack.

The Rosetta Stone, which translated a Demotic decree (the language of everyday ancient Egyptians) into Greek and hieroglyphics, gave us an understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1799. Had a French soldier not stumbled across it by chance, we would have had a pretty difficult time understanding Egyptian writing. But even with the discovery of the precious stone, Jean-Francois Champollion spent over two decades trying to decipher the strange Egyptian symbols.

Among millennia-old scripts, only a few are unreadable. An obscure system used in what is now Iran might finally be deciphered thanks to a team of European scholars led by French archaeologist Francois Desset.

“This is one of the major archaeological discoveries of the last decades,” explains Massimo Vidale, an archaeologist at the University of Padua who was not involved in the research. “It was based on the same approach of Champollion’s breakthrough—identifying and reading phonetically the names of kings.”

Proto-Elamite, derived from Linear Elamite, was used between 2500 and 2220 BC and is named such because its registers are similar to Linear Cretan. Inscriptions on 40 documents from Susa, the ancient urban oasis and capital of Elam, a bustling society that was once one of the first to use written symbols, are the only indications of its existence. Only a partial decipherment of this writing had been accomplished.

Those circumstances have now changed, according to Desset, who gained access to an unusual collection of silver vases encircled with cuneiform and Linear Elamite script.

They were excavated in the 1920s and sold to Western merchants, so their authenticity and provenance have been questioned. Nevertheless, analysis of the vessels revealed that they were ancient rather than modern forgeries.

This image depicts the 72 deciphered alpha-syllabic signs used in Linear Elamite’s transliteration system.

It is thought that they were discovered in a royal cemetery hundreds of kilometres southeast of Susa, dating back to around 2000 BC, as for their origin. According to experts, Elamite linear script was in use around this time.

The silver vases, according to the study, contain the oldest and most complete examples of Royal Elamite inscriptions in cuneiform script. They belonged to two different dynasties.

According to Desset, the vessels were ‘the jackpot’ for deciphering Linear Elamite due to their juxtaposition of inscriptions.

Several cuneiform names, including those of well-known Elamite kings, could now be compared with symbols in Linear Elamite, including Šilhaha. The French professor used repeated symbols that are likely proper names to interpret the geometric shapes of the inscriptions. The verbs “made” and “gave” were also translated by him.

More than 96 per cent of known linear Elamite symbols were able to be read by Desset and his co-authors. “Even if a complete decipherment cannot yet be claimed, mainly due to the limited number of inscriptions, we are not far away,” the experts write in their study.

These findings may shed light on a previously unknown society that flourished between ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley in the dawn of civilization if the researchers are right and their peers are debating the claim hotly.

The paper describing the discovery was published in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie.

As per experts, this analysis could also rewrite the evolution of writing itself.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Archaeologists uncover the ancient city and hundreds of artefacts close to Baghdad

Archaeologists uncover the ancient city and hundreds of artefacts close to Baghdad

An archaeological dig in Al-Suwaira, some 60km south of Baghdad, has revealed an ancient Parthian (247BC to 224AD) city and unearthed more than 200 artefacts.

Archaeologists uncover the ancient city and hundreds of artefacts close to Baghdad
A Parthian site has been discovered south of Baghdad

According to a statement from Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) the recently completed 150-day mission took place in Abu Ghafil, near the Al-Suwaira air base, and revealed wooden residential structures as well as 233 artefacts that were sent to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.

“It was a salvage project to dig two mounds at the site of Abu Ghafil,” the archaeologist Mohammed Sabri, the head of the expedition, explains.

“The main discovery was a manufacturing and residential settlement of the Parthian period, which I believe was a kind of a vassal settlement.”

The artefacts that were found during excavation, he says, are mainly household items and include “a typical, simple Parthian jar with a tipped base that was common in that era”.

The Parthian empire was located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Dynasty of China, and it encompassed Persian, Hellenistic and regional cultures.

Around 233 artefacts have been sent to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, including this well-preserved vase

Sabri says that the site, near the air base that defended Baghdad against Iranian missiles in the 1980s, was officially discovered in 2017 but that it may have been referenced in a mid-20th century survey conducted by the US archaeologist and scholar McGuire Gibson.

“In accordance with the latest surveys conducted by Iraqi staff of the SBAH, we have about 15,000 archaeological sites, registered and non-registered [in Iraq]” he explains.

“Some were registered from the beginning of the last century and even before that. To dig this number of sites we will need millions of years since it is a precise, scientific work that requires patience, trillions of dinars, and tens of thousands of archaeologists to supervise the work.”

The SBAH has long-term plans, he says, “to dig a specific number of sites for scientific and other practical reasons, besides the restoration, rehabilitation and survey projects in our ancient and heritage sites”.

Chaos and instability unleashed after the 2003 invasion, Isis’s reign of terror, as well as the recent pandemic, have slowed some of SBAH’s work. But the archaeologist Tobin Hartnell of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani—who will accompany a tour of ancient sites this fall organised by the Detroit-based tourism company Spiekermann Travel—notes that, even before 2003, “Under Saddam, the Parthian era sites were often overlooked as their restoration could appear to be glorifying the Persian empire at the time of the Iran/Iraq war”.

The exception, Hartnell says, was Hatra (recently restored post-Isis) which was celebrated and maintained by Saddam because of its association with “Arab kings”.

He says: “Lots of major projects were focused more on the ancient Tigris/Euphrates area rather than Wasit that was further east and closer to Iran. Just another reason why this is an underappreciated part of Iraq’s heritage.”

Hartnell says the new discovery is significant. “Wasit was a major industrial region of ancient and medieval Iraq whose history will be illuminated by this project.”

AFRICA, WORLD

Stone Age discovery shows Homo sapiens survived in the Kalahari

Stone Age discovery shows Homo sapiens survived in the Kalahari

Stone Age discovery shows Homo sapiens survived in the Kalahari
The archaeological site at a rock shelter in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert: More than 100,000 years ago, people used the so-called Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter for spiritual activities.

Archaeological evidence in a rock shelter at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, South Africa, is challenging the idea that the origins of our species were linked to coastal environments.

“Our findings from this rock shelter show that overly simplified models for the origins of our species are no longer acceptable. Evidence suggests many regions across the African continent were involved, the Kalahari being just one,” Dr. Wilkins said.

“Archaeological evidence for early Homo sapiens has been largely discovered at coastal sites in South Africa, supporting the idea that our origins were linked to coastal environments. There have been very few well-preserved, datable archaeological sites in the interior of southern Africa that can tell us about Homo sapiens’ origins away from the coast.

“A rock shelter on Ga-Mohana Hill that stands above an expansive savannah in the Kalahari is one such site.”

Archaeological excavations at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter where early evidence for complex Homo sapiens behaviours was recovered.

Used as a place of spiritual activities today by some of the local community, archaeological research in the rock shelter has revealed a long history as a place of spiritual significance.

The researchers excavated 22 white calcite crystals and fragments of ostrich eggshells thought to be used as water containers, from deposits dated to 105,000 years ago at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter when the environment was much wetter than today. The researchers were delighted to discover that the assemblage of human-collected crystals and ostrich eggshell fragments at Ga-Mohana Hill was significantly older than that reported in interior environments elsewhere.

“Our analysis indicates that the crystals were not introduced into the deposits via natural processes, but were deliberately collected objects likely linked to spiritual beliefs and ritual,” Dr. Wilkins said.

“The crystals point towards spiritual or cultural use of the shelter 105,000 years ago,” said Dr. Sechaba Maape from the University of the Witwatersrand. “This is remarkable considering that site continues to be used to practice ritual activities today.”

The age of the archaeological layers was constrained via Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating in the OSL laboratory at the Department of Geology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

“This technique measures natural light signals that accumulate over time in sedimentary quartz and feldspar grains,” said Dr. Michael Meyer, head of the OSL Laboratory. “You can think about each grain as a miniaturized clock, from which we can read out this natural light or luminescence signal, giving us the age of the archaeological sediment layers.”

Crystals were collected by early Homo sapiens in southern Kalahari 105,000 years ago.

The name Kalahari is derived from the Tswana word Kgala, meaning ‘great thirst’. And today the climate at Ga-Mohana is semi-arid, with little, very seasonal rainfall.

However, ancient proof of abundant water on the landscape is evident from the abundant tufa formations around the shelter. These were aged using the uranium-thorium dating method between 110,000 and 100,000 years ago — exactly the same time period as the people were living there.

“This is a story of water in what we know now as a dry landscape, and of adaptable people who exploited the landscape to not only survive but to thrive,” says Dr. Robyn Pickering, who is director of the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town.

Due to the ongoing spiritual significance of Ga-Mohana Hill, the researchers are conscious to minimize their impact on the local communities’ use of the rock shelter after each season.

“Leaving no visible trace and working with the local community is critical for the sustainability of the project,” Dr. Wilkins said. “So that Ga-Mohana Hill can continue to provide new insights about the origins and evolution of Homo sapiens in the Kalahari.”

ASIA, MONGOLIA, WORLD

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Construction workers employed in road building near the Onon River in the Khentii province of Mongolia, have discovered a mass ԍʀᴀvᴇ containing the remains of many ᴅozᴇɴs of human coʀᴘsᴇs lying upon a large rudimentary stone structure.

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Forensic experts and archaeologists were called to the site, which was revealed to be a Mongolian royal tomb from the 13th century that the scientists believe to be Genghis Khan’s.

The team of scientists affiliated with the University of Beijing has concluded that the numerous skeletons ʙuʀιᴇᴅ on top of the structure were most likely the slaves who built it and who were then мᴀssᴀcʀᴇᴅ to keep the secret of the location.

The remains of twelve horses were also found on the site, certainly sᴀcʀιғιcᴇᴅ to accompany the Great Khan in death.

A total of 68 skeletons were found ʙuʀιᴇᴅ together, almost directly over the top of a rather crude stone structure

The content of the tomb was scattered and badly deteriorated, presumably due to the fact that the site was located beneath the river bed for hundreds of years until the course of the Onon river changed in the 18th century. The ʀᴇмᴀιɴs of a tall male and sixteen female skeletons were identified among hundreds of gold and silver artefacts and thousands of coins.

The women are presumed to have been wives and concubines of the leader, who were κιʟʟᴇᴅ to accompany the warlord in the afterlife. The amount of treasure and the number of sᴀcʀιғιcᴇᴅ animals and people immediately led the archaeologists to consider that the site was certainly the ʙuʀιᴇᴅ site of a really powerful Mongol warlord.

After realizing an extensive set of tests and analysis, they were able to confirm that the ʙoᴅʏ belonged to a man aged between 60 and 75, who ᴅιᴇᴅ between 1215 and 1235 AD. Both the age, the date, the location, and the opulence of the site seem to confirm that the tomb does indeed belong to Genghis Khan

The simple rock dome discovered by the archaeologists was presumably ʙuʀιᴇᴅ beneath the Onon river for centuries.

The incontestable historical importance of Genghis Khan makes this new discovery one of the most important in the history of archaeology. Born Temüjin (which means “of iron”), he was the founder and ԍʀᴇᴀтκнᴀɴ (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise.

He is known for uniting the tribes of Mongolia and merging them into one before launching a series of military campaigns in cнιɴᴀ, Central Asia, the Middle East and even Eastern Europe.

He conquered more than 31 million square kilometres of land during his lifetime. His legacy has taken many forms besides his conquest and can still be found today, making him one of the most influential men in the history of mankind.

He connected the East and the West through the creation of the Silk Route, a trade route that would become and remain for centuries, the main network of trade and cultural transmission in Eurasia, opening long-distance, political and economic interactions between the civilizations.

Genghis Khan also has an incredible number of descendants, as some genetic studies have shown that he could be the direct ancestor of 1 human out of every 200 who are alive today. In Mongolia alone, as many as 200,000 of the country’s 2 million people could be Genghis Khan descendants.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey

Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey

Archaeologists have been continuously involved in excavations in the ancient city of Assos for 42 years. Assos ancient site has much to offer. A recent discovery at the ancient site of Assos, a 2,200-year-old Roman fountain,  informed the head of archaeological digs on Monday.

Ruins of the Temple of Athena, Assos, Turkey.

Located within the borders of the village of Behramkale in the Ayvacik district of Çanakkale province, the ancient city of Assos sheds light on its long historical past. Long-lasting excavations have already revealed a large number of Roman and Byzantine artefacts.

“Since the working conditions in the field were a bit intense in the winter, we continued to document the archaeological materials we previously found during that period. In addition, we prepared for the restoration of the city walls,” the head of excavations Professor Nurettin Arslan from the Faculty of Science and Letters at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University’s Archaeology Department, said, as cited by Daily Sabah.

“With the arrival of summer, our active work on the land has started. We are excavating different areas in the ancient city.”

Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey
Archaeologists found the remains of a 2,200-year-old Roman fountain in Assos, northwestern Turkey, on Aug. 15, 2022.

These excavations are extremely valuable and drew the attention of scientists and academics from some universities in Germany and a team of 30 people that took part in the latest excavations, Arslan informed.

This season, the team is focused on home to a gymnasium dating back to the Hellenistic period. He stated that they are focusing on the cisterns built as an add-on during the Roman period in the well-protected gymnasium, which was the high school of the Hellenistic era.

Assos is located on a high hill, in an area devoid of natural water resources. For this reason, there are underground water tanks and cisterns made by carving or cutting rocks in both official buildings and homes in the ancient city.

The fountain structure, Arslan informed, has its location in front of the Roman-era cisterns of the gymnasium.

The ancient Theatre of Assos overlooking the Aegean Sea, with the nearby island of Lesbos on the horizon, at right.

“According to our initial findings, we learned that it was a magnificent fountain structure. We know of many cisterns in Assos, but this is the first time we’ve come across a monumental fountain structure, ” the researcher said, adding that in terms of urban architecture, the fountain, is no doubt, an important structure, however, it had been seriously damaged during the Byzantine period.”

The team will do their best to re-erect the existing fragments of the 2,200-year-old Roman fountain.

Once the excavation is complete, one day in the near future, visitors will get the opportunity to see the ancient Roman work and feel the atmosphere around it.

Assos (also known as Behramkale), was once one of the most important port cities of its era and dates back to the period of Roman rule in the region. The ruins of Assos include an ancient theatre, agora, necropolis and the city’s protective walls. The theatre was discovered on the south slope of the ancient city across Midilli (Lesbos) and is thought to have been destroyed during an earthquake. From its construction technique and plan, it is understood that the theatre – with the capacity to hold 2,500 people – also dates back to the Roman era.

The agora is a central public space in which people would meet and gather while stoas are closed areas that protect people from the sun and rain. Also, there is a gymnasium and bouleuterion (assembly building) around the agora.

Among other archaeological finds within the area of the necropolis, the team found the oldest remains were found in jars as ashes. There were some items found placed beside the bodies as presents.

Then sarcophaguses were used as graves. The most interesting gift to the dead inside the sarcophaguses was a sculpture of a women’s orchestra.

Assos – where Turkish archaeologists started excavations in 1981 – was added to UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List on April 15, 2017.

EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

First Female Viking Grave Discovered In Swedish Mountains

First Female Viking Grave Discovered In Swedish Mountains

Archaeologists in Sweden have every reason to be excited after learning a mountain climber came across an extraordinary 1,200-year-old brooch.

Based on recent reports, everything indicates the first female Viking grave was located in the Swedish mountains. It is a unique and surprising find that is believed to provide scientists with much better knowledge of Vikings in the mountains regions of Sweden.

The brooch was discovered by mountain hiker Eskil Nyström who stumbled upon a rock last year. While setting up and securing his tent, Nyströn noticed something odd was sticking up from the ground.

“My first thought was that I had found a mine, but then when I had dug around, I understood that it can’t be, Nyström told TT.

Nyström took the brooch home and asked around, but no one knew what it was or where it came from. One year later, he came in contact with the museum Jamtli in the city of  Östersund and understood the archaeological and historical value of the brooch he had found.

“It’s an incredible archaeological discovery,” Anders Hansson, chief archaeologist at Jamtli, told Swedish Radio (SR).

This week, Hansson and his archaeology team travelled to Jämtland and inspected the place where the brooch was found. At the site, scientists unearthed burned bones, suggesting this was a cremation burial.

The Vikings had complex burial rituals, and every discovery offers new insight into how people sent their loved ones to the afterlife. Fire played a central role in spectacular burial rituals practised by the Vikings.

When a great Viking chieftain died, he received a ship burial. Another option was for the Vikings to be burned, and cremation was common during the early Viking Age. Ashes were later spread over the waters. The vast majority of the burial finds throughout the Viking world are cremations.

The Viking brooch was discovered in the Swedish mountains in Jämtland.

At the site in Jämtland, Hansson also found another oval brooch which is not much of a surprise because such pins are usually unearthed in pairs.

“What has been established is that it is a cremation grave from the Viking Age and “most likely” a woman’s grave, Hansson says. Previously, only five other Viking graves have been found in the mountains, and all have belonged to men.

“You get the feeling that these people were on their way somewhere when the woman died. The burial took place here, where the woman took her last breath. They could have taken the woman home where they lived, but instead, they make a cremation pit on the mountain,” Hansson told TT.

Hansson says the female Viking tomb is richly equipped.

Examination of the Viking brooch.

“It’s really pretty. It is completely socially and religiously correct. The Viking woman took all her most precious objects to the grave, but there are no monuments, burial mounds, or cairns. It’s just a flat hill. This grave is thus different compared to Viking graves in Iron Age settlements,” Hansson explained, adding excavations of the grave are not planned this year.

Regular excavations will only be relevant next year.

“The grave has been there for 1,200 years. It will undoubtedly survive one more year,  Hansson told P4 Jämtland.

The world of archaeology is full of surprises, and we have seen on many occasions small findings can lead to much larger treasures. This time a tiny 9th-century brooch may open a new chapter in the history of Vikings in Sweden.

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Massive Prehistoric Complex, with More than 500 Standing Stones, Found in Southern Spain

Massive Prehistoric Complex, with More than 500 Standing Stones, Found in Southern Spain

Side view of a menhir and stone platform at La Torre-La Janera megalithic site near Huelva.

A massive megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones has been discovered in southern Spain that could be one of the largest in Europe, archaeologists have said.

The stones were discovered on a plot of land in Huelva, a province flanking the southernmost part of Spain’s border with Portugal, near the Guadiana River.

Spanning about 600 hectares (1,500 acres), the land had been earmarked for an avocado plantation. Before granting the permit the regional authorities requested a survey in light of the site’s possible archaeological significance. The survey revealed the presence of the stones.

“This is the biggest and most diverse collection of standing stones grouped together in the Iberian peninsula,” said José Antonio Linares, a researcher at Huelva University and one of the project’s three directors.

It was probable that the oldest standing stones at the La Torre-La Janera site were erected during the second half of the sixth or fifth millennium BC, he said. “It is a major megalithic site in Europe.”

At the site, they found a large number of various types of megaliths, including standing stones, dolmens, mounds, coffin-like stone boxes called cists, and enclosures.

“Standing stones were the most common finding, with 526 of them still standing or lying on the ground,” said the researchers in an article published in Trabajos de Prehistoria, a prehistoric archaeology journal. The height of the stones was between one and three metres.

At the Carnac megalithic site in northwest France, there are about 3,000 standing stones.

Massive Prehistoric Complex, with More than 500 Standing Stones, Found in Southern Spain
Alignments of Menhirs of Menec in Carnac, western France.

One of the most striking things was finding such diverse megalithic elements grouped together in one location and discovering how well preserved they were, said Primitiva Bueno, co-director of the project and a prehistory professor at Alcalá University, near Madrid.

“Finding alignments and dolmens on one site is not very common. Here you find everything all together – alignments, cromlechs and dolmens – and that is very striking,” she said, hailing the site’s “excellent conservation”.

An alignment is a linear arrangement of upright standing stones along a common axis, while a cromlech is a stone circle, and a dolmen is a type of megalithic tomb usually made of two or more standing stones with a large flat capstone on top.

Most of the menhirs were grouped into 26 alignments and two cromlechs, both located on hilltops with a clear view to the east for viewing the sunrise during the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes, the researchers said.

Many of the stones are buried deep in the earth. They will need to be carefully excavated.

The work is scheduled to run until 2026, but “between this year’s campaign and the start of next year’s, there will be a part of the site that can be visited”, Bueno said.

All In One Magazine