BELGIUM, EUROPE, WORLD

What Happened to the Waterloo Dead?

What Happened to the Waterloo Dead?

Were the bones of fallen Battle of Waterloo soldiers sold as fertilizer?

As very few human remains have been found from what was such a bloodied affair, killing thousands, it’s a conclusion that a new study suggests is most probable. However, publishing his findings today – exactly 207 years since the historic conflict – in the peer-reviewed Journal of Conflict Archaeology, lead expert Professor Tony Pollard states it isn’t quite a situation of ‘case closed’.

Batalla de Waterloo - Jan Willem Pieneman La bataille de Waterloo (1824, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) de Jan Willem Pieneman (1779-1853)
Batalla de Waterloo – Jan Willem Pieneman La bataille de Waterloo (1824, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) de Jan Willem Pieneman (1779-1853)

The Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow demonstrates original data comprising newly found battlefield descriptions and drawings, made by people who visited in the days and weeks following Napoleon’s defeat.

These included letters and personal memoirs from a Scottish merchant living in Brussels at the time of the battle, James Ker, who visited in the days following the battle and describes men dying in his arms. Together the visitor accounts describe the exact locations of three mass graves containing up to 13,000 bodies.

But will these new data lead to a mass grave discovery of the long-lost bones of those who gave their lives in this battle, which finally concluded a 23-year-long war?

It’s unlikely states, Professor Pollard.

“Artistic licence and hyperbole over the number of bodies in mass graves notwithstanding, the bodies of the dead were clearly disposed of at numerous locations across the battlefield, so it is somewhat surprising that there is no reliable record of a mass grave ever being encountered.

“At least three newspaper articles from the 1820s onwards reference the importing of human bones from European battlefields for the purpose of producing fertilizer.

“European battlefields may have provided a convenient source of bone that could be ground down into bone-meal, an effective form of fertilizer. One of the main markets for this raw material was the British Isles,” Professor Pollard, from the University of Glasgow Centre for War Studies and Conflict Archaeology, says. 

“Waterloo attracted visitors almost as soon as the gun smoke cleared.

“Many came to steal the belongings of the dead, some even stole teeth to make into dentures, while others came to simply observe what had happened.

“It’s likely that an agent of a purveyor of bones would arrive at the battlefield with high expectations of securing their prize.

“Primary targets would be mass graves, as they would have enough bodies in them to merit the effort of digging the bones.

“Local people would have been able to point these agents to the locations of the mass graves, as many of them would have vivid memories of the burials taking place, or may even have helped with the digging.

“It’s also possible that the various guidebooks and travelogues that described the nature and location of the graves could have served essentially as treasure maps complete with an X to mark the spot.

“On the basis of these accounts, backed up by the well-attested importance of bone meal in the practice of agriculture, the emptying of mass graves at Waterloo in order to obtain bones seems feasible, and the likely conclusion is that.”

But, to determine once and for all, as part of his role as the Lead Academic and an Archaeological Director at the charity Waterloo Uncovered, Professor Pollard will help to lead an “ambitious”, several years-long geophysical surveys, involving veterans who will join the dig to provide insight to world-class archaeologists. In turn, they receive care and recovery.

“The next stage is to head back out to Waterloo, to attempt to plot grave sites resulting from the analysis of early visitor accounts reported here,” states Pollard, a Professor of Conflict History and Archaeology.

“If human remains have been removed on the scale proposed then there should be, at least in some cases, archaeological evidence of the pits from which they were taken, however, truncated and poorly defined these might be.

“Covering large areas of the battlefield over the coming years, we will look to identify areas of previous ground disturbance to test the results of the source review and distribution map, and in conjunction with further documentary research and some excavation will provide a much more definitive picture of the fate of the dead of Waterloo.”

If the team was to find anything, it would be an extremely rare discovery.

In 2015 a human skeleton was uncovered during the building of a new museum and carpark at the site. Then in 2019, amputated human leg bones were unearthed by the Waterloo Uncovered team in an excavation of the main allied field hospital. There is also a skeleton of uncertain provenance in the museum in Waterloo.

No other significant remains have ever been found.

EUROPE, IRELAND, WORLD

Bronze Age Fortress Identified in Ireland

Bronze Age Fortress Identified in Ireland

A Galway archaeologist has discovered what he describes as one of the most extraordinary monuments of probable Bronze Age in Ireland. 

Michael Gibbons identified the large fortress, which is bound by turloughs or seasonal lakes, within the park at Coole, during fieldwork in the Burren lowlands east of Gort in Co Galway.

Working with Muintearas, the Gaeltacht education project, Mr Gibbons said the site had been known previously, but its antiquity was questioned.

However, his recent survey of the area indicates it is a unique fortress which used the turloughs as part of its defence and is likely to date from between 800 and 1200BC.

Measuring about 400m north-south and 110m east-west, the archaeologist said that it is comparable to Dún Aonghasa on Inis Mhór, and a couple of hundred people could have lived there.

Mr Gibbons said the site is like a giant lake-dwelling, utilising the turloughs in a very special way and set in a magical landscape.

Much of it is covered in dense woodland but he hopes that further research and analysis of LiDAR data from aerial surveys will reveal many Bronze Age round houses within the ramparts.

The fotresses is located within coole park

Describing it as an incredible find, the CEO of Muintearas, Seán Ó Coistealbha, said it is a huge addition to the archaeology of the area.

“Enormous work would have gone into constructing it by men and women in ancient times,” he said.

“We are just skirting around the stone ramparts of this community with a wealth of information yet to be discovered.”

Bronze Age Fortress Identified in Ireland
PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Mysterious Pyramids In The Amazon, Spotted By NASA Satellite In 1976

Mysterious Pyramids In The Amazon, Spotted By NASA Satellite In 1976

In 1976, NASA’s Landsat Satellite was orbiting Earth when it photographed mysterious dots in southeast Peru, at 71 degrees, 30 minutes west longitude in the Madre de Dios region of the Amazon.

The satellite photograph, archived under number C-S11-32W071-03 showed a mysterious set of formations, in the middle of Peru’s southeastern jungle.

The satellite image revealed structures symmetrically spaced and uniform in shape, looking like a series of eight or more pyramids, in at least four rows of two.

“The Dots” of Paratoari as seen in NASA satellite photograph

The curious formation became known as the Pyramids of Paratoari, or as many authors would later call them, The Dots of Peru, or the Pyramids of Pantiacolla.

The satellite image sent explorers, authors, and researchers into a frenzy as to what the curious structures are. The ‘pyramids’ became quite popular, especially since it is believed that the lost city of Paititi was located somewhere in that area.

The president of the South American Explorers Club, Don Montague wrote about the enigmatic structures in an article published in the South American Explorer Journal, where he described them as nothing other than odd geological formations.

However, many people who saw the satellite image were not convinced by Montague’s writing.

Proponents of the theory that the structure are not geological formations but in fact, manmade structures argue that the Pyramids were most likely built by a long-lost ancient civilization that inhabited the Amazonian rainforest thousands of years ago.

The alleged structure, many argue, has been devoured by the surrounding rainforest and is covered with thousands of years of vegetation.

Exploring The Pyramids

Despite the fact that the alleged pyramids’ structures are located in a remote part of the Amazonian rainforest, a number of expeditions have been mounted to explore, not only the alleged pyramids but the region in search of the lost city of Paititi.

The lost city of Paititi is a legendary ancient Incan metropolis, said to be located somewhere east of the Andes, within the dense and remote rainforests of southeast Peru, northern Bolivia or southwest Brazil.

Numerous expeditions to search for the lost city of Paititi were established, and some of them even searched for the alleged pyramids of Paratoari.

Between 1984-2011 various expeditions were led by Gregory Deyermenjian, a member of the explorer’s club and a Peruvian explorer.

These included the documentation of Incan remains in Mameria, the exploration and documentation of the petroglyphs at Pusharo, the exploration, and documentation of Manu’s Pyramids of Paratoari, and others.

Deyermenjian had discovered plenty of evidence of ancient Inca inhabitance in the area, including petroglyphs, paved roads, platforms, and plazas, but he did not find conclusive evidence that the mysterious structures spotted by NASA’s Landsat satellite were man-made structures.

Deyermenjian argued that the structures were natural sandstone formations known as truncated ridge spurs, which can take the form of natural pyramids.

Deyermenjian has since, in 1999 and 2006, seen and photographed various very similar sites in the area of the Río Timpía, with intriguingly pyramidal-shaped huge natural formations.

“In 1996, still without a helicopter, we again ensconced ourselves within the steamy lower jungles of Manu, in an area just to the south of Pusharo, to reach and make the first definitive examination of the “Pyramids of Paratoari,” eight apparently evenly spaced and unnaturally symmetrical hillocks which had caused a flurry of speculation as to their origin and relation to Paititi since having been spotted on a NASA satellite photograph twenty years before…”

But people were still amazed by the formations.

In 2001, French explorer Thierry Jamin investigated the site of Pantiacolla and is said to have investigated the pyramids, concluding that they are in fact natural formations. However, Jamin discovered several Inca artefacts in the same area.

In 2011, a British expedition to investigate the Pyramids of Paratoari with Kenneth Gawne, Lewis Knight, Ken Halfpenny, I. Gardiner and Darwin Moscoso as part of the documentary “The Secret of the Incas” took place.

AUSTRALIA, WORLD

An Egyptian Pyramid In Australia? Archaeologists Claim Massive Structure Dates Back 5,000 Years

An Egyptian Pyramid In Australia? Archaeologists Claim Massive Structure Dates Back 5,000 Years

An archaeologist believes that there’s a MASSIVE 900-meter tall pyramid hidden in plain sight beneath thick layers of vegetation and soil in Australia.

The structure is believed to date back some 5,000 years. Pyramids are scattered all across the globe. No matter where we look, ancient cultures built marvellous ancient structures across the planet, with the most notorious monument being the Great Pyramid of Giza, an ancient wonder of engineering still standing today after thousands of years.

Now, a group of amateur archaeologists from Australia claims that before Australia was visited by the Europeans — in fact, thousands of years before that, I might add — the ancient Egyptians visited the mainland of Australia and even built Pyramids there.

According to a set of Hieroglyphs found in Gosford, there are TWO pyramids in Australia – one at Gympie (pictured) here, which has been demolished, and another one which still stands today.

As outrageous as this may sound to many, according to a group of researchers, more than 5000 years after ancient Egyptians made their way to Australia, it is believed that a Pyramid built under a mountain in North Queensland has been discovered.

The group claims that ‘Walsh’s Pyramid’, located some 30 minutes west of the popular Australian coastal city, stands a staggering 922 meters in height.

The Pyramid is said to be the final resting place of Egyptian Royal Lord Nefer-ti-ru, according to the group. And exactly where most people see only a massive Pyramid-shaped hill is where the vivid group of archaeologists sees more than what initially meets the eye.

Evidence of their claims is supported by the curious “Gosford Glyphs,” a set of strange carvings that according to many researchers are Egyptian in nature.

Located in the vicinity of Sydney, the intricate carvings are believed to be thousands of years old and were carved by ancient Egyptian sailors when they discovered the Australian continent, some 5,000 years ago.

These are the Gosford Glyphs.

These curious sets of hieroglyphs are referred to as the Kariong Hieroglyphs due to the fact they are located in the Brisbane Water National Park, Kariong, and also called the Gosford Glyphs due to the nearby community of Gosford can be seen in New South Wales.

But countless controversies surround the alleged hieroglyphs.

Numerous archaeologists have made it clear that the Gosford Glyphs are nothing more than a modern forgery, and how it’s IMPOSSIBLE that the ancient Egyptians made their way to Australia and carved the curious set of symbols on the side of a massive rock, let alone build pyramids.

As we wrote previously, is said that amateur archaeologist Ray Johnson supposedly translated the alleged glyphs for the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo and was successful in documenting and translating the two-facing walls of Egyptian characters.

The translation of the Gosford Glyphs supposedly records the story of a tragic saga of ancient Egyptian explorers that shipwrecked in a strange and hostile land — now known as Australia.

Anyway, returning back to the Pyramid in Australia, Ray Johnson is convinced how the enigmatic set of hieroglyphs at Gosford undoubtedly points out how Lord Nefer-ti-ru, a former member of the ancient Egyptian Royal Family is buried at the site.

Furthermore, Johnson is convinced how the Gosford Glyphs tell the story of how ancient Egyptian sailors built TWO Pyramids in Australia, one of which was said to be found at Gympie, in central Queensland.

This is the alleged Pyramid in Australia, rising a staggering 900 meters in the air. The Pyramid (pictured), is located outside Cairns in north Queensland.
An Egyptian Pyramid In Australia? Archaeologists Claim Massive Structure Dates Back 5,000 Years
The alleged Gympie Pyramid

It was eventually demolished leaving the whereabouts of the other Pyramid an enigma all until now.

Mr. Johnson believes that the second Pyramid is in fact located beneath thick layers of soil, hidden away from sight, remaining unperceived for thousands of years. Despite the fact that the “hieroglyphs” point to the existence of a Pyramid located in the Area, the site in question — located at the Wooroonooran National Park — has never been researched.

This is mostly due to the fact that experts consider the location where Johnson believes the Pyramid is located a Natural granite peak.

However, archaeologists are convinced that this pyramid could be similar to the one discovered buried beneath thick layers of soil and vegetation in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina (also read this update from a field geologist at Visoko).

However, mainstream scholars reject the notion there’s a Pyramid in Australia — let alone two — and that the mountain where said structure is supposedly located, only ‘appears to be the shape of a pyramidal structure’.

EGYPT, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Ancient Egyptian Presence In North America: The Mysterious Fawn Hoof Mummy

Ancient Egyptian Presence In North America: The Mysterious Fawn Hoof Mummy

This fascinating mummy was found over 200 years ago in one of the largest cave systems in America: The Mammoth Cave. There, miners discovered an extremely well-preserved mummy with red hair prepared and embalmed in an eerily similar way to the ancient Egyptians.

Ancient Egyptian Presence In North America: The Mysterious Fawn Hoof Mummy
Mammoth Cave Mummy, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

After examining the mummy in the late 1800s, the Smithsonian Institute ‘lost’ the mummy. Some 200 years ago, a very unusual mummy was discovered in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

There are a couple of things about the mummy which completely challenge what we have been taught to believe about history books, especially about the ability and accomplishments of the Ancient Egyptians, their intrepid transoceanic voyages and their influence on other ancient cultures.

The mummy known as Fawn Hoof is considered by many as evidence that history books are wrong and that we are being given filtered information when it comes to ancient civilizations and the origins of mankind.

The mummy was mentioned in the book Prehistoric Mummies from the Mammoth Cave Area, by Angelo I. George where the author indicates that the mummy was found in the cave in September of 1811. According to George, the Ancient mummy was given the name “Fawn Hoof” in 1815 and ‘thousands’ of people saw the mummy as it was put on display.

But what’s the story behind the mummy and why is it so important?

Sometime between Between 1811 and 1813 (different authors vary on the date, a group of miners were working inside one of the Kentucky caves known as Short Cave.

One of the workers, who was excavating, came across a hard surface which proved to be a large rock with a flat surface. After miners had removed the rock they discovered a crypt that contained a mummy inside. But it wasn’t an ordinary mummy. In the past, such discoveries were not given much importance and people looked to make a profit out of history.

In 1816, Nahum Ward from Ohio visited the cave and purchased numerous artefacts and the Fawn Hoof Mummy. In addition to the Fawn Hoof Mummy, Ward also purchased other mummies and some of them were over reportedly 2500 years old.

Years went by and the collection purchased by Ward was placed in a travelling exhibition of rarities. Through the years, the Fawn Hoof Mummy travelled across the country. It was first taken to Lexington, Kentucky and later transferred to the American Antiquarian Society.

In 1876 the Fawn Hoof Mummy was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution by Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society. Due to the fact that the mummy was inadequately cared for and because it was transported a lot, the mummy suffered damage.

Researchers at the Smithsonian examined the mummy, dissected it and reported their findings.

At some point after that – like many other things that challenge history — the Fawn Hoof Mummy was completely lost.

According to initial reports, the mummy was found to have been a woman of around six feet in height.

The mummy was wrapped in deerskin, which in turn was decorated with leaf and vine patterns. The mummy was found to be in an extremely well-preserved condition even though the mummy was not analyzed by researchers for over 60 years after it was initially found.

Among the more unusual finding was the fact that this mummy-like other mummies found in Peru and Bolivia in recent times — had red hair.

It was concluded that the hair was cut to a length of an eighth of an inch, except for the back of the mummy’s head where the hair was about two inches long. Based on the artefacts found where the mummy was buried, it is believed that the woman was of great importance in ancient times.

However, researchers noted that among the most fascinating details about the Fawn Hoof Mummy is the fact that it was prepared and embalmed in an eerily similar way as the ancient Egyptians used to.

Reports indicate that the hands, ears, fingers, and the rest of the body were dried, but extremely well preserved.

But how is it possible that the mummy was lost? Is it possible that the mummy challenged historical doctrines set into place by certain institutions?

Many people believe that the Fawn Hoof Mummy is one of the many indicators which prove that thousands of years ago, before written history, ancient cultures around the globe were intricately connected and that transoceanic voyages occurred much sooner than mainstream scholars are willing to accept.

ANTARCTICA, WORLD

The Ancient ‘Buache Map’ Is Depicting Ice-Free Antarctica

The Ancient ‘Buache Map’ Is Depicting Ice-Free Antarctica

Numerous maps have been discovered depicting our planet as it was before the last ice age. Many people claim that before written history, extremely advanced ancient civilizations existed on Earth and these ancient cultures, ignored by mainstream history, had well-developed cartography systems comparable in precision to the ones we have today.

No one has been able to explain just how these extremely ancient maps, depicting regions of our planet like Antarctica without ice, dating back thousands of years exist.

Many argue that these maps are the product of Antediluvian civilizations that inhabited our planet thousands of years before written mainstream history.

The Antediluvian period or the Pre-Flood period is referred to as the time ‘before the great deluge’. In the Bible, this time is set between the fall of man and the Noachian deluge, the story of the Flood as described in Genesis.

While most of us are familiar with the Piri Reis map – which has been validated by scholars who remain baffled and cannot explain their precision and level of detail — most of us are unaware that there are numerous other maps that depict the same scenery.

One of those maps is the controversial cartographic chart created by a French geographer the name of Philippe Buache de la Neuville.

The Ancient ‘Buache Map’ Is Depicting Ice-Free Antarctica

The Buache map has two versions. One of the charts is believed to accurately depict the ice-free coastline of Antarctica while the other chart makes no mention of the continent whatsoever.

Many indicate that Buache was unaware of the existence of the Icy Continent and that his depictions were nothing more than a hypothesis.

The 18th-century map is claimed to accurately depict the continent of Antarctica before it was buried by thick layers of Ice.

The only way for the map to correctly portray this is if someone mapped the Antarctic continent when it was free from ice.

ANTARCTICA, WORLD

Denman Glacier: Deepest point on land found in Antarctica

Denman Glacier: Deepest point on land found in Antarctica

The deepest point on continental Earth has been identified in East Antarctica, under Denman Glacier. This ice-filled canyon reaches 3.5km (11,500ft) below sea level. Only in the ocean are the valleys deeper still. The discovery is illustrated in a new map of the White Continent that reveals the shape of the bedrock under the ice sheet in unprecedented detail.

Its features will be critical to our understanding of how the polar south might change in the future. The new map, called BedMachine Antarctica, shows, for example, previously unrecognised ridges that will impede the retreat of melting glaciers in a warming world; and, alternatively, a number of smooth, sloping terrains that could accelerate withdrawals.

“This is undoubtedly the most accurate portrait yet of what lies beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet,” said Dr Mathieu Morlighem, who’s worked on the project for six years.

Denman Glacier: Deepest point on land found in Antarctica
Denman’s deep trough (dark blue) is 20km wide and 100km long – all filled with ice

At the University of California, Irvine, the researcher is presenting his new compilation here at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting. It is also being published simultaneously in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The map essentially fills all of the gaps in airborne surveys of the continent.

For decades, radar instruments have crisscrossed Antarctica, sending down microwave pulses to peer through the ice and trace the underlying rock topography. But there are still vast areas for which there is little or no data.

Dr Morlighem’s solution has been to use some physics – mass conservation – to plug these holes.

For instance, if it’s known how much ice is entering a narrow valley and how fast it’s moving – the volume of that ice can be worked out, giving an insight into the depth and roughness of the hidden valley floor.

For the 20km-wide Denman Glacier, which flows towards the ocean in Queen Mary Land, this approach reveals the ice to be descending to over 3,500m below sea level.

Byrd Glacier is a giant ice stream that cuts through the Transantarctic Mountains

“The trenches in the oceans are deeper, but this is the deepest canyon on land,” explained Dr Morlighem.

“There have been many attempts to sound the bed of Denman, but every time they flew over the canyon – they couldn’t see it in the radar data.

“The trough is so entrenched that you get side-echoes from the walls of the valley and they make it impossible to detect the reflection from the actual bed of the glacier,” he told BBC News.

For comparison, the deepest ocean point – in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific – goes just shy of 11km below the sea surface. There are land canyons that can be described as having taller sides, such as Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in China, but their floors are above sea level.

The lowest exposed land on Earth, at the Dead Sea shore, is a mere 413m (1,355ft) below sea level.

Much of what is in BedMachine Antarctica may not – at first glance – look that different from previous bedmaps. But, on closer inspection, there are some fascinating details that will generate considerable discussion among polar experts.

For example, along the Transantarctic Mountains, there is a series of glaciers that cut through from the continent’s eastern plateau and feed into the Ross Sea.

The new data shows a high ridge sits under these glaciers which will limit the speed at which they can drain the plateau. This will be important if future warming destabilises the floating shelf of ice that currently sits on top of the Ross Sea. Removal of this platform would ordinarily be expected to speed up the flow of feeding glaciers.

“If something happened to the Ross Sea Ice Shelf – and right now it’s fine, but if something happened – it will most likely not trigger the collapse of East Antarctica through these ‘gates’. If East Antarctica is threatened, it’s not from the Ross Sea,” Dr Morlighem said.

Airborne instruments are used to map Antarctica, but there are still huge data gaps

In contrast to the situation in the Transantarctic Mountains, BedMachine Antarctica finds few impediments to the rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier. Roughly the size of the UK, this mighty ice stream terminates in the Amundsen Sea in the west of the continent.

It worries scientists because it sits on a bed that slopes back towards the land – a geometry that tends to assist in thinning and withdrawal. And the new map reveals only two ridges, some 30km and 50km upstream of Thwaites’ current grounding line, that could act as potential brakes. Go past these and the melting glacier’s pull-back could be unstoppable.

BedMachine Antarctica will be fed into climate models that try to project how the continent might evolve as temperatures on Earth rise in the coming centuries.

Getting realistic simulations out of these models depends on having more precise information on the thickness of the ice sheet and the type of terrain over which it must slide.

Co-worker Dr Emma Smith from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute uses this analogy: “Imagine if you poured a bunch of treacle onto a flat surface and watched how it flowed outwards. Then pour the same treacle onto a surface with a lot of lumps and bumps, different slopes and ridges – the way the treacle would spread out would be very different. And it’s exactly the same with the ice on Antarctica,” she told BBC News.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Olive Trees Were First Domesticated 7,000 Years Ago

Olive Trees Were First Domesticated 7,000 Years Ago

Olive Trees Were First Domesticated 7,000 Years Ago

A joint study by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University unravelled the earliest evidence for the domestication of a fruit tree. The researchers analyzed remnants of charcoal from the Chalcolithic site of Tel Zaf in the Jordan Valley and determined that they came from olive trees.

Since the olive did not grow naturally in the Jordan Valley, this means that the inhabitants planted the tree intentionally about 7,000 years ago. Some of the earliest stamps were also found at the site, and as a whole, the researchers say the findings indicate wealth and early steps toward the formation of a complex multilevel society.

The groundbreaking study was led by Dr. Dafna Langgut of The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology & Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, The Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University.

The charcoal remnants were found in the archaeological excavation directed by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports from the publishers of Nature.

‘Indisputable Proof of Domestication’

According to Dr. Langgut, Head of the Laboratory of Archaeobotany & Ancient Environments which specializes in microscopic identification of plant remains, “trees, even when burned down to charcoal, can be identified by their anatomic structure. Wood was the ‘plastic’ of the ancient world.

It was used for construction, for making tools and furniture, and as a source of energy. That’s why identifying tree remnants found at archaeological sites, such as charcoal from hearths, is a key to understanding what kinds of trees grew in the natural environment at the time, and when humans began to cultivate fruit trees.”

In her lab, Dr. Langgut identified the charcoal from Tel Zaf as belonging to olive and fig trees. “Olive trees grow in the wild in the land of Israel, but they do not grow in the Jordan Valley,” she says. “This means that someone brought them there intentionally – took the knowledge and the plant itself to a place that is outside its natural habitat. In archaeobotany, this is considered indisputable proof of domestication, which means that we have here the earliest evidence of the olive’s domestication anywhere in the world.”

7,000 years-old microscopic remains of charred olive wood (Olea) recovered from Tel Tsaf

“I also identified many remnants of young fig branches. The fig tree did grow naturally in the Jordan Valley, but its branches had little value as either firewood or raw materials for tools or furniture, so people had no reason to gather large quantities and bring them to the village.

Apparently, these fig branches resulted from pruning, a method still used today to increase the yield of fruit trees.”

Evidence of Luxury

The tree remnants examined by Dr. Langgut were collected by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University, who headed the dig at Tel Zaf. Prof. Garfinkel: “Tel Zaf was a large prehistoric village in the middle Jordan Valley south of Beit She’an, inhabited between 7,200 and 6,700 years ago. Large houses with courtyards were discovered at the site, each with several granaries for storing crops.

Storage capacities were up to 20 times greater than any single family’s calorie consumption, so clearly these were caches for storing great wealth.

The wealth of the village was manifested in the production of elaborate pottery, painted with remarkable skill. In addition, we found articles brought from afar: pottery of the Ubaid culture from Mesopotamia, obsidian from Anatolia, a copper awl from the Caucasus, and more.”

Dr. Langgut and Prof. Garfinkel were not surprised to discover that the inhabitants of Tel Zaf were the first in the world to intentionally grow olive and fig groves, since growing fruit trees is evidence of luxury, and this site is known to have been exceptionally wealthy.

Dr. Langgut: “The domestication of fruit trees is a process that takes many years, and therefore befits a society of plenty, rather than one that struggles to survive. Trees give fruit only 3-4 years after being planted. Since groves of fruit trees require a substantial initial investment and then live on for a long time, they have great economic and social significance in terms of owning land and bequeathing it to future generations – procedures suggesting the beginnings of a complex society.

Moreover, it’s quite possible that the residents of Tel Zaf traded in products derived from the fruit trees, such as olives, olive oil, and dried figs, which have a long shelf life.

Such products may have enabled long-distance trade that led to the accumulation of material wealth, and possibly even taxation – initial steps in turning the locals into a society with a socio-economic hierarchy supported by an administrative system.”

Dr. Langgut concludes: “At the Tel Zaf archaeological site we found the first evidence in the world for the domestication of fruit trees, alongside some of the earliest stamps – suggesting the beginnings of administrative procedures. As a whole, the findings indicate wealth, and early steps toward the formation of a complex multilevel society, with the class of farmers supplemented by classes of clerks and merchants.”

All In One Magazine