EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Priceless Art Found In Paris Apartment Vacant Since 1939

Priceless Art Found In Paris Apartment Vacant Since 1939

Caked in dust and full of turn-of-the-century treasures, this Paris apartment is like going back in time. Having lain untouched for seven decades the abandoned home was discovered three years ago after its owner died aged 91.

The woman who owned the flat, a Mrs De Florian, had fled for the south of France before the outbreak of the Second World War. She never returned and in the 70 years since it looks like no one had set foot inside.

The property was found near a church in the French capital’s 9th arrondissement, between Pigalle red-light district and Opera.

Priceless Art Found In Paris Apartment Vacant Since 1939
Back in time: The flat near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red-light district and Opera

Experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions which included a painting by the 19th-century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

One expert said it was like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty, where time had stood still since 1900. ‘There was a smell of old dust,’ said Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery.

But he said his heart missed a beat when he caught sight of a stunning tableau of a woman in a pink muslin evening dress.

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist’s former muse and Mrs de Florian’s grandmother, Marthe de Florian, a beautiful French actress and socialite of the Belle Époque.

Under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini
Untouched: The cobweb-filled flat was discovered in the 9th arrondissement of Paris
Treasure trove: Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects, including the Boldini painting that sold for £1.78million
When the owner died aged 91, experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions
Mrs de Florian fled Paris before the outbreak of war in 1939, which saw the Nazis invade France and reach Paris on June 14. Pictured here, German officers and Parisians mingle near a sidewalk cafe on the Champs Elysees on Bastille Day in 1940

Marthe de Florian was an actress with a long list of ardent admirers whose fervent love letters she kept wrapped neatly in ribbon and were still on the premises.

Among the admirers was the 72nd prime minister of France, George Clemenceau, but also Boldini.

The expert had a hunch the painting was by Boldini, but could find no record of the painting.

‘No reference book dedicated to Boldini mentioned the tableau, which was never exhibited,’ said Marc Ottavi, the art specialist he consulted about the work.

When Mr Choppin-Janvry found a visiting card with a scribbled love note from Boldini, he knew he had struck gold. ‘We had the link and I was sure at that moment that it was indeed a very fine Boldini’.

He finally found a reference to the work in a book by the artist’s widow, which said it was painted in 1898 when Miss de Florian was 24.

The starting price for the painting was £253,000 but it rocketed as ten bidders vyed for the historic work. Finally, it went under the hammer for £1.78million, a world record for the artist.

‘It was a magic moment. One could see that the buyer loved the painting; he paid the price of passion,’ said Mr Ottavi.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Rare 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered on a beach in Wales, scientists believe

Rare 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered on beach in Wales, scientists believe

Dinosaur footprints found on a Welsh beach could have been made more than 200 million years ago, experts believe. Palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum believe the footprints – known as a trackway – date back to the Triassic period and were most likely left by an early relative of the famous Diplodocus.

Rare 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered on beach in Wales, scientists believe
The footprints were most likely left by an early relative of the Diplodocus

The footprints were discovered on a beach in Penarth in April last year by youth worker Kerry Rees, who was taking her daily lockdown stroll having recently moved to the area.

Kerry, from Ferndale in the Rhondda, was aware of the area’s history of dinosaur discoveries – with a fossilised skeleton of a distant cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex found on the same stretch of coastline back in 2014 – and sent pictures of the footprints to the Natural History Museum for experts to investigate.

Museum palaeontologists Dr Susannah Maidment and Professor Paul Barrett were initially sceptical of the report – but now believe that the footprints are from the late Triassic era.

“We get a lot of enquiries from members of the public for things that could be trackways but many are geological features that can easily be mistaken for them,” said Dr Maidment.

“However, from the photographs, we thought they were a fairly good contender for something that could be tracked and that it would be worth taking a look.”

Kerry Rees discovered the trail whilst out walking on the beach in Penarth

After visiting the site to examine the discovery, Prof. Barrett said: “We believed the impressions we saw at Penarth were consistently spaced to suggest an animal walking. We also saw displacement rims where mud had been pushed up.

“These structures are characteristic of active movement through the soft ground.”

Researchers now think that the impressions are an example of Eosauropus, which is a name not of a dinosaur, but a type of track thought to have been made by a very early sauropod or near sauropod-relative – the group of dinosaurs that later included the Diplodocus.

“We know early sauropods were living in Britain at the time, as bones of Camelotia, a very early sauropod, have been found in Somerset in rocks dated to the same period,” said Dr Maidment. “We don’t know if this species was the trackmaker, but it is another clue which suggests something like it could have made these tracks.”

Experts visited the site to examine the discovery

Dinosaur trackways can provide information about how herds moved, as well as the way an animal may have walked – but there is not much existing evidence akin to the trail of footprints discovered in Penarth.

“These types of tracks are not particularly common worldwide, so we believe this is an interesting addition to our knowledge of Triassic life in the UK,” concluded Prof. Barett.

“The record of Triassic dinosaurs in this country is fairly small, so anything we can find from the period adds to our picture of what was going on at that time.”

The coastline has a history of dinosaur discoveries

The footprints are not the first to be discovered in Wales in 2021, with a four-year-old girl stunning palaeontologists finding an “internationally important” print on a trip to the supermarket.

Lily Wilder was walking along the coast between Barry and Sully with her father Richard when she spotted what experts have called “the finest impression of a 215 million-year-old dinosaur print found in Britain in a decade”.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

‘Incredible’ 3,000-year-old Bronze Age roundhouse discovery dubbed ‘Britain’s Pompeii’

‘Incredible’ 3,000-year-old Bronze Age roundhouse discovery dubbed ‘Britain’s Pompeii’

The discovery of the “best-preserved” Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain was carried out by archaeologists excavating a site in East Anglian Fens, Cambridgeshire, back in 2016.

But to this day, Prof Alice Roberts, who presents the television programme Digging For Britain and has seen spectacular digs unearthed up and down the country, said this could be the best dig she has ever covered. She told Express.co.uk: “It is one of my favourite sites ever, it was just incredible.“

Cambridge University archaeologists digging at Must Farm quarry, in Whittlesey, uncovered the charred oak roof timbers of a roundhouse, conserved in stunning detail.

The wooden house is part of a 3,000-year-old settlement of family homes that would have been built on stilts above the water.

Prof Roberts said: “It is so unusual to have buildings from the Bronze Age first-of-all, wood preserved so you can actually see the whole structure of those roundhouses and several of them.

“And then it was the fact that it had gone up in flames and then fallen into the water and obviously nobody has gone back to collect anything from the site and afterwards you wonder what happened to the inhabitants of the village.

'Incredible' 3,000-year-old Bronze Age roundhouse discovery dubbed 'Britain's Pompeii'
A 300-year-old roundhouse from the Bronze age was dubbed ‘Britain’s Pompeii”
They are some of the “best-preserved” Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain

“Because of that, you have got all the contents of those houses as well, and that is what I found utterly astonishing.“

The roundhouses, made out of wattle, reed and timber, and their contents collapsed into the water and into the river silt. Archaeologists say the speed and brevity of the event led to an almost instant entombment of the material.

Prof Roberts said: “Normally you just find scattered metal objects, bone objects and that kind of thing.

“But because of the incredible preservation, it went much further than that.“

The village was built about 1,000 years before the Romans settled in Britain.

The village was built about 1,000 years before the Romans settled in Britain. The surviving settlement was made up of five wooden roundhouses built closely together. Its discovery gives fantastic domestic detail into how ancient Britons arranged their homes, from cooking, to storage to crafts.

Prof said: “There was a fragment of a basket with little bundles of looked like twine inside it. It looked like a craft basket that had just fallen over inside somebody’s house.

“There were beautiful pieces of fabric, amazing pieces of textile that looked like very fine linen.

Prof Roberts comments come as her new series of Digging For Britain is set to air at the beginning of January 2022.

It was like somebody had gone to Bronze Age John Lewis and bought a whole dining set.”
Around 30 or so people lived in nine or ten wooden roundhouses erected on stilts on a platform

“It’s just a range of cultural artefacts. It was like somebody had gone to Bronze Age John Lewis and bought a whole dining set. Rather than one or two bowls, there were a whole set of different sized bowls with different functions. It was amazing.”

Duncan Wilson, Historic England’s chief executive said back in 2016: “A dramatic fire combined with subsequent waterlogged preservation has left to us a frozen moment in time.

“This site is of international significance and its excavation really will transform our understanding of the period.”

The site has been dubbed “Britain’s Pompeii,” although the Roman town-city was much larger (a plot of over 60 hectares with a population of approximately 11,000).

But in the English Fens, it was just a small river community of around 30 or so people living in nine or ten wooden roundhouses erected on stilts on a platform by the water.

Like the “Britain’s Pompeii” find, which featured on the series several years ago, the latest season of the show is jam-packed with stunning finds too.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Archaeologists stunned by ancient Babylonian device: ‘More advanced than we thought’

Archaeologists stunned by ancient Babylonian device: ‘More advanced than we thought’

Babylon was the city where some of the most influential empires of the ancient world ruled. For a long time, it was the capital of the Babylonian Empire, and was considered to be the global centre of commerce, art and learning, and is even estimated to have been the largest early city in the world — perhaps the first to reach a population of more than 200,000 people.

Today, it resembles more of an archaeological excavation site in progress and has only several thousand residents and a few villages within its boundaries. It holds some of the greatest secrets of the ancient world, including the Tower of Babel, which is first mentioned in Genesis in the Bible.

In 1894, Edgar Banks, an American archaeologist, discovered a stone device and sold it to antique collector George Plimpton. He eventually passed it on to Columbia University in the 1930s, and the tablet is today known as Plimpton 322.

Archaeologists stunned by ancient Babylonian device: 'More advanced than we thought'
Archaeology: Researches have been stunned by the Babylonian tablet
Babylon: The ancient city is located in modern-day Iraq

At the time, researchers did not realise how important the tablet was, and it was not until 1945 that experts realised it contained Pythagorean triples.

But then the tablet was forgotten, and it was not until this year that Dr Daniel Mansfield, from the University of New South Wales, Australia, was given access to it, revealing the full extent of the device’s wonder.

Speaking to the BBC’s reel exploring the tablet, titled, ‘Evidence ancient Babylonians were far more advanced than we thought, he described it as the, “most interesting, most sophisticated mathematical document from the ancient world”.

It tells us that past civilisations understood mathematics a lot better than we thought.

In particular, it shows how the Mesopotamians understood Pythagorean triples at a level of sophistication “that we never expected”, according to Dr Mansfield.

Ancient tablet: The clay tablet shows how the Babylonians used Pythagorean triples

Traditionally, the history of geometry starts in Ancient Greece, where astronomers used the technique to understand the movement of celestial bodies through the night sky. The most famous relation in geometry is the relation between the sides and the hypotenuse of a right triangle, in modern times known as Pythagoras’ Theorem.

But, as Dr Mansfield noted: “In reality, elements of this understanding are apparent throughout history.”

The tablet proves that about a thousand years before the Greek astronomers were looking at the night sky, Babylonian surveyors had their own unique understanding of right triangles and rectangles.

But, rather than using the technique to look at the night sky, they applied it on the ground in day-to-day life.

They did not have what we today call the theorem.

Pythagoras: Some of the calculations found on the tablets
Dr Daniel Mansfield: The Australian researcher further deciphered the tablet’s engravings

Instead, they knew all the particular cases where the theorem held true, myriad examples of rectangles that had pleasant, easy to manage measurements. New research from Dr Mansfield and his team has since shed light on a long-standing mystery: how the ancient Babylonians may have actually used these tablets.

He explained: “This tablet shows us that the application is actually surveying, these people are making boundaries and making really accurate boundaries using their understanding of geometry.

“Pure mathematics is the study of mathematics for its own sake.

Ancient history: One of the tablets that were used during the research project

“But it’s often motivated by the problems of the day.

“Plimpton 322 arguably fits into this category because we see a mathematician generating all these rectangles and then analysing them to see which ones have regular sides, which is a relevant problem in contemporary surveying.”

The tablet shows us that Babylonian surveying became a lot more accurate during this time.

Mesopotamia: The region is believed to have been at the centre of global commerce, art and culture
EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Skeletal remains of children amid 119 burials stun archaeologists

Skeletal remains of children amid 119 burials stun archaeologists

The chilling archaeological discovery unearthed the skeletal remains of adults and children, some of whom were buried in pairs and coins in their mouths. The remains were buried in the village of Jeżowe in the Subcarpathia region of southeast Poland, where the S19 motorway is being constructed. Archaeologists have dated the discovery to the 17th century.

According to the General Director for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKIA), 115 burials were first unearthed in Jeżowe in the Góry Kościelne or Church Mountain range.

Archaeologists have since expanded their discoveries to a total of 119 remains.

The experts have since confirmed up to 80 per cent of the bones belong to children.

According to archaeologist Kataryna Oleszek of the archaeology group Arkadia, the burial site could have been designated specifically for children.

A second theory suggests there was a high mortality rate among children in this area.

Archaeology News: Archaeologists have found 115 burials in southeast Poland
Archaeology news: The majority of skeletons belonged to children

The archaeologists hope to learn more after a careful analysis by anthropologists.

She told TVN24: “We must take all precautions, we must work with as much delicacy and attention to detail as possible.

“First of all, so we do not miss anything, and second of all, these bones are very fragile.”

The archaeologists are, however, certain the buried people were most likely poor as they were buried without any personal possessions.

The GDDKIA said in a statement: “115 skeletal graves were discovered during archaeological works on the construction of the S19 Podgórze-Kamień section.

“While carrying out archaeological surveillance work as part of the S19 motorway, graves with human remains were discovered.

“The burial pits were located in the Kościelne Mountains, a range of hills in Jeżówe, wherein 1604 the first parish was erected.

“To date, archaeologists have found 115 skeletal graves.”

The grave pits were all oriented along the east to west axis, with heads pointing towards the west.

The GDDKIA said: “Based on archaeological observations to date, we can conclude that about 70 to 80 percent of all burials are children.

“This is probably tied to the fact that in this place a part of the cemetery was separated, where the youngest residents of Jeżowe were buried.”

The burial pits were poorly equipped and the archaeologists were surprised to find coins in the mouths of the remains.

Archaeology news: A motorway is being constructed near the discovery
Skeletal remains of children amid 119 burials stun archaeologists
Archaeology news: Some of the skeletons had coins in their mouths for the afterlife

The coins are most likely a link to old Polish folklore and beliefs about the afterlife.

These coins are known as an obol of the dead or Charon’s obol – a form of payment used by the soul in the afterlife. In ancient Greek mythology, the souls of the dead would hand over the coin to Charon, the ferryman of Hades.

The ferryman would then carry the deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron into the world of the dead. These particular coins are known as boratynki and półtoraki.

The coins were minted at the start of the 17th century during the reign of King Sigismund III Vasa. According to Eric J. Gilchrest”s book Revelation 21-22 in Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Utopianism, the practice of burying people with obols in the fifth century BCE.

He wrote: “As early as the sixth and into the fifth centuries BCE, the landscape of the afterlife began to change dramatically.

“Archaeological evidence shows that it is during the fifth century that the dead begin to be buried with an obol meant for Charon, the ferryman at the river Styx.”

Many more incredible archaeological discoveries have been made in Poland. In 2019, for instance, researchers found evidence of two 7,000-year-old structures.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Cloncavan man: A 2,300-year-old murder mystery

Cloncavan man: A 2,300-year-old murder mystery

In March 2003, the body of a man who lived during the Iron Age was discovered in a peat bog in Ireland. Known as the Clonycavan Man, the well-preserved remains indicate that the body was not that of a man who died a natural or honourable death, but one who was brutally murdered.

The mysteries surrounding his death are plentiful. Who was this man? Why was he so brutally murdered? How was his body so well preserved for so many years? And what is the significance of his highly groomed hair?

The Clonycavan Man’s remains are referred to as a “bog body.” The discovery of ancient and well-preserved bodies in peat bogs has been fairly widespread.

When a dead body is deposited into bog water that is highly acidic, low in temperature, and low in oxygen, the body can remain intact for thousands of years, including skin, hair, and organs.

This unintended mummification gives us a glimpse into the lives and deaths of ancient humans who weren’t necessarily honoured as royal or dignitary, like the mummified remains found in Egypt.

Clonycavan Man, who lived around the 4th or 3rd century B.C., is now a “bog body,” on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

The Clonycavan Man was found in Clonycavan, County Meath in Ireland, in a machine that had been harvesting peat. The remains, which have been dated to 2,300 years old, consisted of a head, neck, arms, torso, and upper abdomen. 

It is likely that the peat harvesting machine was responsible for severing his lower body. It is estimated that he was between the ages of 24-40 when he died. The visible details of the Clonycavan Man are astonishing.

His estimated height was five feet, two inches tall. His nose was squashed, and his teeth crooked. The pores of his skin were still visible, and it has been concluded that his diet consisted mostly of fruits and vegetables.

Due to the damage from the peat harvesting machine, the Clonycavan Man did not have hands, but other bog bodies have been discovered to have very well-manicured fingernails.

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Clonycavan Man was his hair. On his face, he wore a goatee and a moustache, while on his head was a very distinguished hairstyle.

The front of his hair was shaven, giving him a higher hairline on his forehead. The remainder of his hair was several inches long, and was intricately folded forward and then back in what has been described as an “ancient Mohawk.”

It is believed that standing at only five feet, two inches, the Clonycavan Man chose this hairstyle to make himself appear taller.  Scientists even discovered an ancient form of hair gel in his hair, made of plant oil and pine resin.

The presence of this hair gel indicates that he was fairly wealthy during his lifetime, because it was made from materials found in France and Spain.

The most mysterious aspect of the Clonycavan Man is the manner of his death. Some have suggested that he was a King, who was ceremoniously sacrificed.

The injuries to his body suggest a particularly grisly death, which may have possibly been the result of torture. There is evidence of three significant blows to his head, to the point where his skull split open. He had also been hit in the nose and the chest and was disembowelled.

His nipples had been sliced off, which is specifically believed to be a sign of a failed kingship. In ancient Ireland, sucking on a king’s nipples was a sign of submission. Removing the nipples was intended to make a man incapable of kingship.

Unfortunately, the bog only preserves the body and doesn’t leave behind much other evidence. While it is fairly clear that he died a mysterious death, possibly akin to murder, there isn’t much else to tell us about who he was or why he died.

The preservation of his body was not intentional, and it is unlikely that anyone ever intended for future civilizations to try to unravel the mystery of his death.

BRAZIL, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Brazil: Fossilised Eggs Dating 60-80 Mn Yrs Ago Belongs To Dinosaurs, Confirms Scientists

Brazil: Fossilised Eggs Dating 60-80 Mn Yrs Ago Belongs To Dinosaurs, Confirms Scientists

A nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs have been found in Brazil that would have hatched into vicious carnivores 60 million to 80 million years ago if the eggs were not buried by loose sediment.

The five eggs, which are well-preserved were originally believed to be ancient crocodile eggs – fossilized faeces belonging to crocodylomorph was previously uncovered at the site.

After deeper analysis by a team of palaeontologists led by William Roberto Nava, the eggs were determined to be larger and have a thicker shell than those from a crocodylomorph, according to g1.

Nava, who is responsible for most of the finds, at the Paleontological Museum in Marilia, told g1 that the dinosaur eggs measure four to five inches long and two to three inches wide, while the ancient crocodiles’ egg is typically no longer than three inches.

He further explained that the shell of fossilized crocodylomorph eggs is a porous or smooth texture, while those from the dinosaur have a ‘ripple-shaped’ texture.

A litter of fossilized dinosaur eggs have been found in Brazil that would have hatched into vicious carnivores 60 million to 80 million years ago if the eggs were not buried by loose sediment

‘They look like little wavy earthworms, which differs from the texture of the crocodile,’ he told g1.

The dinosaur eggs, which were uncovered in the city of Presidente Prudente, in the interior of São Paulo, were preserved by the soil transforming into sandstone over time.

The material acts as a natural protector, forming several layers of sand over millions of years that have protected the eggs until palaeontologists recently pulled them from the ground last year – it wasn’t until this month did they determine the eggs came from a dinosaur.

Nava told g1: ‘ Who knows if in one of these [five] eggs we have a fossilized embryo. It would be super cool, it would be something new for Brazil.’

The statement was highlighting the discovery of an exquisitely preserved dinosaur embryo found in China. The embryo, dubbed ‘Baby  Yingliang, was found curled up inside a fossilized egg and was found in the rocks of the ‘Hekou Formation’ at the Shahe Industrial Park in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province.

The specimen is one of the most complete dino embryos known and notably sports a posture closer to those seen in embryonic birds than usually found in dinosaurs. Specifically, Baby Yingliang was close to hatching, and had its head below its body, its back curled into the egg’s blunt end and its feet positioned on either side of it.

Brazil: Fossilised Eggs Dating 60-80 Mn Yrs Ago Belongs To Dinosaurs, Confirms Scientists
The eggs were preserved by the soil transforming into sandstone over time

Palaeontologists led from the University of Birmingham said that Baby Yingliang belonged to species of toothless, beaked theropod dinosaurs, or ‘oviraptorosaurs’. 

Baby Yingliang takes its nickname from the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in Xiamen, among whose fossil collections it is held.

The researchers believe that the embryonic oviraptorosaur would have been some 10.6 inches (27 cm) from head to tail, but was developing curled inside a 6.7 inch (17 cm) -long egg.

‘This dinosaur embryo was acquired by the director of Yingliang Group, Mr Liang Liu, as suspected egg fossils around the year 2000,’ said paper author and palaeontologist Lida Xing of the China University of Geosciences in Beijing.

‘During the construction of Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in the 2010s, museum staff sorted through the storage and discovered the specimens.

‘These specimens were identified as dinosaur egg fossils. Fossil preparation was conducted and eventually unveiled the embryo hidden inside the egg.

‘This is how ‘Baby Yingliang’ was brought to light.’

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Shattered Skeletons of Man and Dog From Eruption and Tsunami 3,600 Years Ago

Shattered Skeletons of Man and Dog From Eruption and Tsunami 3,600 Years Ago

The remains of a young man and a dog who were killed by a tsunami triggered by the eruption of the Thera volcano 3,600 years ago have been unearthed in Turkey. Archaeologists found the pair of skeletons during excavations at Çeşme-Bağlararası, a Late Bronze Age site near Çeşme Bay, on Turkey’s western coastline.

Despite the eruption of Thera being one of the largest natural disasters in recorded history, this is the first time the remains of victims of the event have been unearthed.

Moreover, the presence of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası show that large and destructive waves did arrive in the northern Aegean after Thera went up.

Previously, based on the evidence available, it had been assumed that this area of the Mediterranean only received ash fallout from the eruption of Thera.

Instead, it now appears that the Çeşme Bay area was struck by a sequence of tsunamis, devastating local settlements and leading to rescue efforts.

Thera — now a caldera at the centre of the Greek island of Santorini — is famous for how its tsunamis are thought to have ended the Minoan civilisation on nearby Crete.

Based on radiocarbon dating of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası, the team believe that the volcano’s eruption occurred no earlier than 1612 BC.

The remains of a young man (pictured) and a dog who were killed by a tsunami triggered by the eruption of the Thera volcano some 3,600 years ago have been unearthed in Turkey
Archaeologists found the pair of skeletons during excavations at Çeşme-Bağlararası, a Late Bronze Age site near Çeşme Bay, on Turkey’s western coastline
Despite the eruption of Thera is one of the largest natural disasters in recorded history, this is the first time remains of victims of the event have ever been found. Pictured: part of the fortifications at the Çeşme-Bağlararası. The remains of the dog can be seen on the wall, while beneath that can be seen a shell-rich muddy patch deposited by the first wave
The presence of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası show that large and destructive waves did arrive in the northern Aegean after Thera went up. Previously, based on the evidence available, it had been assumed that this area of the Mediterranean only received ash fallout from the eruption of Thera. Pictured: a map of the dig site as seen in 2012, showing the location of the human and canine remians within the Late Bronze Age fortifications

The study was undertaken by archaeologist Vasıf Şahoğlu of the University of Ankara and his colleagues.

‘The Late Bronze Age Thera eruption was one of the largest natural disasters witnessed in human history,’ the researchers wrote in their paper.

‘Its impact, consequences, and timing have dominated the discourse of ancient Mediterranean studies for nearly a century.

‘Despite the eruption’s high intensity and tsunami-generating capabilities, few tsunami deposits [have been] reported.

‘In contrast, descriptions of pumice, ash, and tephra deposits are widely published.’

Amid stratified sediments at the Çeşme-Bağlararası site, the researchers found the remains of damaged walls — once part of a fortification of some kind —  alongside layers of rubble and chaotic sediments characteristic of tsunami deposits.

Within these were two layers of volcanic ash, the second thicker than the first, and a bone-rich layer containing charcoal and other charred remains. According to the team, the deposits represent at least four consecutive tsunami inundations, each separate but nevertheless resulting from the eruption at Thera.

Tsunami deposits associated with the eruption are relatively rare — with three found near the northern coastline of Crete and another three along Turkey’s coast, albeit much further south than Çeşme-Bağlararası.

Within these tsunami deposits (pictured) were two layers of volcanic ash, the second thicker than the first, and a bone-rich layer containing charcoal and other charred remains
According to the team, the deposits (H1a–d in the above) represent at least four consecutive tsunami inundations, each separate but nevertheless resulting from the eruption at Thera.
The young man’s skeleton — which shows the characteristic signatures of having been swept along by a debris flow — was found up against the most badly damaged portion of the fortification wall (pictured, centre), which the team believe failed during the tsunami

Traces of misshapen pits dug into the tsunami sediments at various places across the Çeşme-Bağlararası site represent, the researchers believe, an ‘effort to retrieve victims from the tsunami debris.’

‘The human skeleton was located about a meter below such a pit, suggesting that it was too deep to be found and retrieved and therefore (probably unknowingly) left behind,’ they added.

‘It is also in the lowest part of the deposit, characterized throughout the debris field by the largest and heaviest stones (some larger than 40 cm [16 inches] diameter), further complicating any retrieval effort.’

The young man’s skeleton — which shows the characteristic signatures of having been swept along by a debris flow — was found up against the most badly damaged portion of the fortification wall, which the team believe failed during the tsunami. 

The full findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tsunami deposits associated with the eruption of Thera are relatively rare — with three found near the northern coastline of Crete and another three along Turkey’s coast, albeit much further south than Çeşme-Bağlararası

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