Ancient Mayans built pyramids partly from ash after a catastrophic volcanic eruption
Akira Ichikawa, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, has found evidence of Mayans returning to a part of Central America that was destroyed after a catastrophic volcanic eruption, much sooner than previously thought.
In his paper published on the Cambridge University Press site Cambridge Core, he describes his study of the area around what was once the site of San Andrés in the Zapotitán Valley, in what is now El Salvador.
Prior research has shown that in AD 539, the Ilopango volcano erupted in an event now known as the Tierra Blanca Joven eruption, and it was a really big one—the largest in Central America over the past 10,000 years, and the largest on Earth over the past 7,000 years.
The blast was so powerful that it covered the area around the volcano in waist-high ash for 35 kilometers. It also blew itself apart, leaving behind a deep gash that is now a crater lake.
The eruption also greatly impacted the Mayan civilization, sending it into a period of decline due to the loss of nearby settlements and cooler temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere.
Due to lack of evidence, historians have debated for years about how soon the Maya returned to the area, with most suggesting it likely took hundreds of years.
In this new effort, Ichikawa describes evidence of the Mayan people returning to a site 40 miles west of the volcano between 30 and 80 years after the eruption. And not only did they return; they built a large pyramid using ash and dirt.
To learn more about what went on in the area around the site, over the years 2015 to 2019, Ichikawa collected and analyzed samples from the ground and from the Campana structure, a pyramid resting atop a large platform.
He found that work on the structure appears to have begun approximately 30 years after the eruption, though it could have been as long as 80 years.
Either way, the data suggest that the Mayan people returned to the area quickly—soon enough that some could have been survivors of the blast.
Ichikawa suggests it is likely the people built the pyramid as a way to appease the gods who had shown their anger by setting off the eruption.
Stonehenge served as an ancient solar calendar: New analysis
It had long been thought that the famous site of Stonehenge served as an ancient calendar, given its alignment with the solstices. Now, research has identified how it may have worked.
New finds about the stone circle’s history, along with analysis of other ancient calendar systems, prompted professor Timothy Darvill to take a fresh look at Stonehenge. His analysis, published in the journal Antiquity, concluded that the site was designed as a solar calendar.
“The clear solstitial alignment of Stonehenge has prompted people to suggest that the site included some kind of calendar since the antiquarian William Stukeley,” said Darvill, from Bournemouth University, “Now, discoveries brought the issue into sharper focus and indicate the site was a calendar based on a tropical solar year of 365.25 days.”
Crucially, recent research had shown that Stonehenge’s sarsens were added during the same phase of construction around 2500 BC.
They were sourced from the same area and subsequently remained in the same formation. This indicates they worked as a single unit.
As such, Darvill analyzed these stones, examining their numerology and comparing them to other known calendars from this period.
He identified a solar calendar in their layout, suggesting they served as a physical representation of the year that helped the ancient inhabitants of Wiltshire keep track of the days, weeks, and months.
“The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way. Each of the 30 stones in the sarsen circle represents a day within a month, itself divided into three weeks each of 10 days,” said Darvill, noting that distinctive stones in the circle mark the start of each week.
Additionally, an intercalary month of five days and a leap day every four years were needed to match the solar year. “The intercalary month, probably dedicated to the deities of the site, is represented by the five trilithons in the center of the site,” said Darvill. “The four Station Stones outside the Sarsen Circle provide markers to notch up until a leap day.”
As such, the winter and summer solstices would be framed by the same pairs of stones every year. One of the trilithons also frames the winter solstice, indicating it may have been the new year.
This solstitial alignment also helps calibrate the calendar—any errors in counting the days would be easily detectable as the sun would be in the wrong place on the solstices.
Such a calendar, with 10-day weeks and extra months, may seem unusual today. However, calendars like this were adopted by many cultures during this period.
“Such a solar calendar was developed in the eastern Mediterranean in the centuries after 3000 BC and was adopted in Egypt as the Civil Calendar around 2700 and was widely used at the start of the Old Kingdom about 2600 BC,” said Darvill.
This raises the possibility that the calendar tracked by Stonehenge may stem from the influence of one of these other cultures. Nearby finds hint at such cultural connections—the nearby Amesbury archer, buried nearby around the same period, was born in the Alps and moved to Britain as a teenager.
Professor Darvill hopes future research might shed light on these possibilities. Ancient DNA and archaeological artifacts could reveal connections between these cultures. Nevertheless, the identification of a solar calendar at Stonehenge should transform how we see it.
“Finding a solar calendar represented in the architecture of Stonehenge opens up a whole new way of seeing the monument as a place for the living,” he said, “a place where the timing of ceremonies and festivals was connected to the very fabric of the universe and celestial movements in the heavens.”
Earliest Known Mayan Calendar Found in Guatemalan Pyramid
Researchers David Stuart from the University of Texas at Austin, Heather Hurst, Boris Beltrán from Skidmore College, and independent scholar William Saturno report the earliest evidence of a Maya sacred calendar in Guatemala.
Reconstruction of San Bartolo Sub-V phase architectural complex and the 7 Deer day-sign mural fragments associated with this context. Reconstruction view of the San Bartolo Sub-V phase architecture (300 to 200 BCE) showing the radial structure, miniature ballcourt, and elongated platform referred to as structure Ixbalamque that together form an E-group. Drawing by Heather Hurst. Inset: Example of two mural fragments (consolidated as #4778), the 7 Deer day-sign and partial hieroglyphic text, among a total of 249 fragments of painted plaster and painted masonry blocks collected during archaeological excavations of the Ixbalamque context. Photograph by Karl Taube, courtesy of the Proyecto Regional Arqueológico San Bartolo-Xultun. Credit: Science Advances (2022).
In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their work, which involved sifting through painted mural fragments at the Las Pinturas pyramid complex in Guatemala, and how they found the calendar.
The Las Pinturas pyramid complex is located near San Bartolo and has been the site of excavation for a number of years.
Prior research has shown construction at the site began 2,300 to 2,200 years ago and that the pyramids at the site were built in multiple phases. As each phase of the project was completed, parts of the old structure were knocked down.
As the pyramids grew in size, the pieces of the knocked-down structures remained hidden inside, providing a timeline of sorts of the construction of the complex. In this new effort, the researchers found the calendar fragments while sifting through the pieces of a wall, decorated by the Maya of that period, that had been knocked down.
Dating of charcoal fragments—found in the same layer of debris as the wall fragments—showed them to be from approximately 300 and 200 BCE, making them the oldest known samples of a Maya sacred calendar.
Detail of fragment #4778 collected from the Sub-V phase (~300 to 200 BCE), with the 7 Deer day sign.Consolidated mural fragment #4778 in black-line style, collected from the Ixbalamque structure: (A) the digital scan and (B) the illustration depicting the 7 Deer day sign and two hieroglyphic signs in a vertical column. Scans by Heather Hurst and illustration by David Stuart. Credit: Science Advances (2022).
The Maya calendar was based on the 260-day divinatory calendar that is still used by some people in parts of Mexico and Central America today.
It was used by a number of people across Mesoamerica. In their work, the researchers found two pieces of wall debris that fit together.
The markings included symbols that are known to have been used to represent a date symbol—a dot over a line above a deer head.
It is known as “7 deer” and represents one of the days in the 260-day calendar. The researchers suggest the artwork shows maturity, which, they contend, indicates that the calendar had been in use for many years.
Ancient Campfires Reveal A 50,000-Year-Old Grocer And Pharmacy In Australia
For the first time in Australia, archaeobotany has been used by researchers from The University of Western Australia to examine charcoal from ancient campfires in the Western Desert.
Led by UWA Ph.D. candidate Chae Byrne, the research was the first of its kind in the region and examined charcoal from ancient campfires in desert rock shelters to learn about the earliest uses of firewood in Karnatukul (Serpents Glen) in Katjarra (the Carnarvon Ranges) Wattle and other Acacias were found in the oldest archaeological site on the land of the Martu in the Western Desert.
It showed how wattle has defined culture and been important to Australians for over 50,000 years.
Wattle and other Acacias were found in the oldest archaeological site on the land of the Martu in the Western Desert.
“Wattle was critical to the lives of the Martu and essential to the habitability of the arid landscape of the sandplains and rocky ridges of the Western Desert – and it still is,” Ms. Byrne said.
“Then and now, wattle has been used as firewood, to make tools, as food, and as medicine.”
The study confirmed that early Indigenous explorers settled in this arid part of the country, even during changes in climate which saw widespread drought and desertification as sea levels dropped when the polar ice sheets grew.
The study also found that wattle and other acacias have been constant, dependable resources, crucial to the habitability of an otherwise arid and harsh environment.
Ms. Byrne and the research team worked closely with Traditional Owners of the region, who shared their knowledge about the many uses for wattle and other plants.
“I have walked in Country with Traditional Owners who have been kind enough to share their knowledge surrounding the many uses for the vegetation which surround us,” Ms. Byrne said.
“They have taught me that there is a purpose and significance for every type of tree and bush; an ancient grocer and pharmacy which has provided and prospered for tens of thousands of years.”
The researchers sampled trees growing in the region today, which could then be compared to ancient charcoal fragments from campfires in archaeological sites.
“Looking at the plant remains is particularly useful in studying Australian Indigenous heritage, given the persistent importance of natural resources like trees and the rarity of other cultural remains in the deep time record,” Ms. Byrne said.
“There’s so much we can learn from charcoal, not just about the people that produced it but also in environmental science and climate change.”
Ms. Byrne was a finalist in Fresh Science, a national competition helping early-career researchers find, and then share, their stories of discovery.
The study was conducted by the University of Western Australia.
New Huge Viking Ship Discovered By Radar In Øye, Norway – What Is Hidden Beneath The Ground?
A new Viking Age ship has been discovered by archaeologists in Norway during a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey. This exciting find reveals a huge Viking boat buried beneath the ground in Øye, in Kvinesdal.
The Øye Viking Age ship was discovered by archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU)
This archaeological discovery is highly significant not only because Viking ship burials are rarely found, but also due to the fact that Kvinesdal was once the home to one of Southern Norway’s largest known burial sites from the Iron and Viking Ages.
Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) said the ancient boat was spotted while researchers conducted geophysical surveys in the area as part of the road-building project E39 led by Nye Veier.
The surveys are a part of the research project “Arkeologi på Ney Veier” (Archaeology on new roads). Based on preliminary reports, archaeologists estimate the Viking boat to be between 8 to 9 meters long.
Several ancient burial mounds have been observed in the vicinity of the Viking ship.
Niku researchers inform that in addition to the boat burial there are traces of several other burial mounds.
At present, it is still unknown how much of the Viking boat remains. Excavations must be carried out and hopefully, the new road project will not interfere with archaeologists’ work.
As previously explained in Ancient Origins, Viking burials were very complex which is the reason why so few boat burials have been unearthed.
When a great Viking chieftain died, he received a ship burial. This involved placing the deceased on the ship, sailing him out to sea, and setting the Viking ship on fire. People could watch flames dance high in the air as they embraced the mighty warrior on his way to the afterlife.
By modern standards, it might sound crude, but Viking burials were intended to be a spectacular ritual. Viking funeral traditions involved burning ships and complex ancient rituals.
Based on discovered archaeological evidence it seems that the funeral boat or wagon was a practice reserved for the wealthy.
This type of burial was not common however and was likely reserved for sea captains, noble Vikings, and the very wealthy. In Old Norse times, boats proper boats took several months to construct and would not have been wasted without a valid cause or a suitable amount of status.
Another option was that the Vikings was burned, and cremation was rather 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.
Archaeological discoveries such as the finding of the magnificent Gokstad Viking ship discovered in 1880 offer more insight into the world of the Vikings. When scientists re-opened and examined the grave in 2007 we could finally learn more about the man who became known as one of the most famous Vikings in Norway – the Gokstad Viking Chief and his remarkable ship.
The Gokstad Viking ship 1880 when was discovered.
The Gokstad ship was built in about 850, at the height of the Viking period. In those days there was a need for ships that could serve many purposes, and the Gokstad ship could have been used for voyages of exploration, trade, and Viking raids. The ship could be both sailed and rowed. There are 16 oar holes on each side of the ship. With oarsmen, steersmen, and lookout, that would have meant a crew of 34.
In recent years there have been exciting reports of unearthed Viking Age burial ships in Sweden and Norway. The giant Gjellestad Viking ship burial in Norway found some years ago has given a unique opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the Vikings.
The discoveries were made by archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) with technology developed by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro).
– We are certain that there is a ship there, but how much is preserved is hard to say before further investigation”, Morten Hanisch, county conservator in Østfold said at the time.
The reconstruction of the Gjellestad Viking ship burial site.
The new radar discovery in Øye is promising and hopefully, researchers will be able to unearth and examine the remains of the Viking ship. Once they accomplish this, we will learn more about the boat and its history. Maybe remains of a Viking Chief will also be found.
A Massive, Black Sarcophagus Has Been Unearthed in Egypt, And Nobody Knows Who’s Inside
Archaeological digs around ancient Egyptian sites still have plenty of secrets to give up yet – like the huge, black granite sarcophagus just discovered at an excavation in the city of Alexandria, on the northern coast of Egypt.
What really stands out about the solemn-looking coffin is its size. At 185 cm (72.8 inches) tall, 265 cm (104.3 inches) long, and 165 cm (65 inches) wide, it’s the biggest ever found in Alexandria.
Oh, and then there’s the large alabaster head discovered in the same underground tomb. Experts are assuming it represents whoever is buried in the sarcophagus, though that’s yet to be confirmed.
It’s a fascinating find for archaeologists. Ayman Ashmawy from the Egypt Ministry of Antiquities says the layer of mortar still intact between the lid and the body of the coffin indicates it hasn’t been opened since it was sealed more than 2,000 years ago.
That’s particularly rare for a site like this – ancient Egyptian tombs have often been plundered and damaged over the centuries, which means archaeologists rarely find a final resting place that’s still intact like this one appears to be.
The site as a whole dates back to the Ptolemaic period between 305 BCE and 30 BCE, with this particular, find uncovered five meters (16.4 feet) below the ground.
Originally found while clearing the site for a new building, the tomb is now under guard while experts can work out what exactly lies inside the black sarcophagus. It could almost be the start of a new Indiana Jones film.
As Jason Daley at the Smithsonian reports, down the centuries Alexandria has developed to be such a busy, crowded city that finding relics can be a challenge – anything that has managed to survive is often difficult to get to.
Those are all the details we have of the new find, so we’ll have to wait and see if the identity of the buried Egyptian can be determined. But a sarcophagus of this size could mean someone of pretty high status.
We haven’t been short of incredible finds in Egypt this year.
In February, archaeologists found a hidden network of tombs south of Cairo in the Minya Governorate, which – like the giant granite sarcophagus – have probably lain untouched for 2,000 years. Experts say it’ll take them five years to work through that site.
Then in April, a rare Greco-Roman temple was found. It promises to reveal secrets about the Siwa Oasis, one of the most remote settlements in Egypt, including how foreign rule affected the country between 200-300 BCE.
Every discovery paints a little more detail about how people lived and worked in these ancient times. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this sarcophagus to see what it might reveal.
Archaeology breakthrough as Christopher Columbus’ first tomb found: ‘We got it!’
The burial site of Columbus has been a mystery for some time. He was initially left to rest in Valladolid, a city in northwest Spain, three years after his death in 1506. However, the exact location of this first tomb has never been confirmed, until now.
After being buried in Valladolid, Columbus’ remains were taken to his family mausoleum in the southern city of Seville and were moved several more times over the following centuries before returning to Seville in 1898.
In 1544 his remains were moved from Seville to Santo Domingo, which is the capital of the Dominican Republic, in accordance with the instructions he had left behind.
In 1795 his bones were moved to Havana before being shipped back across the Atlantic and returned to Seville in 1898.
In 2005, researchers from the University of Granada used DNA samples to confirm that it was in fact Columbus’ remains that were left in the Seville tomb.
Researchers have now determined that he was first buried in the San Francisco convent in Valladolid which no longer exists.
This was revealed in a study by Spain’s Naval Museum.
Archaeology news: Columbus was an explorer
Archaeology News: Plaza Mayor in Valldolid
The site is currently a commercial zone near the spacious Plaza Mayor, a broad, pedestrianised expanse surrounded by arcaded buildings painted red.
The first tomb of Columbus is now known to have been located near the Plaza Mayor in Valladolid.
The researchers’ statement follows “a detailed historical investigation, confirmed by ground-penetrating radars.”
Researchers used samples of lead, brick, and gold from the Seville burial report to find the match with the burial spot in Valladolid.
Marcial Castro, who led the research, said: “I was tasked with identifying the location where Columbus was buried from these threads of gold, silver, nails, lead, brick and to my surprise we got it.”
Archaeology news: He was moved to Seville
Historians and archeologists have since recreated in 3D the dimensions of the chapel in Valladolid that housed the remains of Columbus.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonisation of the Americas.
His expeditions, sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, were the first European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
Archaeology news: Columbus discovered the West Indies
But the navigator has also long been blamed for carrying the sexually transmitted infection syphilis from the Americas to Europe through his crewmen.
While the researchers in Spain are confident they have found the true burial spot, The Dominican Republic maintained that the navigator rests in the cathedral in Santo Domingo, in a coffin found in 1877 with the inscription “Christopher Columbus.”
This claim is made due to the fact that the bodies of the explorer and his son were transferred from the Iberian peninsula in 1523 to Hispaniola – a territory that is today divided between the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic and the French-speaking Haiti – where Christopher Columbus wished to be buried.
A Surprise Cave Finding Has Once Again Upended Our Story of Humans Leaving Africa
Last year, a genetic analysis of bone fragments representing our earliest known presence in Europe raised a few questions over the steps modern humans took to conquer every corner of the modern world.
Whoever the remains belonged to, their family background was more entwined with the East Asian populations of their day than with today’s Europeans, hinting at a far more convoluted migration for our species than previously thought.
Now, researchers from the Universities of Padova and Bologna in Italy have proposed what they think might be the simplest explanation for the unexpected kink in the family tree, based on what we can piece together from genetic relationships and subtle shifts in ancient technology around the world.
If we retrace our footsteps from modern times through the Stone Age and beyond, we’ll inevitably find a moment when a bunch of Homo sapiens took a pivotal step out of Africa onto what we now think of as Eurasian soil.
Earlier, more distant cousins had ventured out numerous times already, settling for a time before dying out. This time, it would all be different. This migration of modern humans stuck, eventually seeding a cultural revolution that would forever change our planet in just a few short millennia. While the outcome of this monumental journey is now obvious, the paths are taken and countless lost branches can only be pieced together from scant surviving artefacts and a legacy of genetic mingling.
The scattering of human bones and stone implements sifted from the sediment of Bacho Kiro Cave in central Bulgaria is just the kind of evidence archaeologists dream of. Uncovered in 2015, they have since been dated to around 45,000 years, officially making them the oldest Upper Paleolithic hominin bones ever found in Europe.
By taking archaeological records into account, we can tell they had descended from a larger community on a 15,000-year-long hiatus in their travels east. If we knew little else about them, we might conclude this person represents some kind of stepping stone between a future in Asia and a past set in Europe – a central hub on Africa’s doorstep from which we expanded and settled ever further abroad.
The genetic evidence preserved in three of those bodies, however, doesn’t match up quite so neatly with this simple scenario. Last year, research led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany concluded the individuals were “more closely related to present-day and ancient populations in East Asia and the Americas than to later west Eurasian populations.”
Finding closer familial ties with modern and ancient Asian populations than with modern European people introduces some challenging questions regarding the way this ancient hub of humanity might have branched into the east and west.
What’s more, a generous dose of Neanderthal blood had recently been introduced into their family tree, further muddying the waters on how our ancestors might have moved and interacted.
According to the authors of this newest study, one possibility considers the migration of humanity a stutter rather than a surge.
“Then, around 45 thousand years ago, a new expansion emanated from the hub and colonized a wide area spanning from Europe to East Asia and Oceania and is associated with a mode of producing stone tools known as Initial Upper Paleolithic,” says the University of Padua molecular anthropologist, Leonardo Vallini.
Above: An unknown hub in the west, from which humans expanded in waves of migration.
Those who branched into Asia thrived, traces of their bloodlines persisting to this day. But something happened in the west, something which saw a temporary end to the human experiment in Europe.
A second study conducted last year on female remains found in the Czechia provides a clue. While carbon dating is yet to confirm an age for her death, changes in her genes hinted at a date even further back than 45,000 years.
More importantly, the Paleolithic woman’s ancestry wasn’t closely related to either modern Europeans or Asians. Whatever happened to her and her kin, their story wasn’t an enduring one.
“It is curious to note that, around the same time, also the last Neanderthals went extinct,” says Giulia Marciani, an archaeologist from the University of Bologna.
It would have taken a fresh wave of human emigration from this central hub some 7,000 years later to repopulate the west and seed lineages that would go on to produce the rich array of cultures we see today.
Just where this temporary hub of humanity might be found and what prompted its populations to set off, again and again, is a matter for future archaeologists to figure out.
If we’ve learned nothing else, it’s clear we shouldn’t make too many assumptions when it comes to the story of how modern humanity made its way around the world.
