Farmer Digs Up Stone Egyptian Stele Saluting Sixth Century BC Pharaoh
A farmer living near Ismailia in Egypt has uncovered a 2,600-year-old stela erected by pharaoh Apries, who ruled from about 589 B.C. to 570 B.C., the Egyptian antiquities ministry reported.
This stela, dating back about 2,600 years, was found in a farmer’s field near the city of Ismailia in Egypt. It contains 15 lines of hieroglyphic writing.
The farmer found this ancient slab of sandstone while preparing his land for cultivation, about 62 miles (100 kilometres) northeast of Cairo; he then contacted the Tourism and Antiquities Police about the discovery, the ministry statement said.
The stela is 91 inches (230 centimetres) long, 41 inches (103 cm) wide and 18 inches (45 cm) thick.
At the top of the stela is a carving of a winged sun disk (a disk that was sometimes associated with the sun god Ra) with a cartouche of Pharaoh Apries, with 15 lines of hieroglyphic writing below that, the statement said.
Apries, also known as Wahibre Haaibre, reigned during the 26th dynasty of Egypt (688 B.C. to –525 B.C.), a time when Egypt was independent and its capital was often located at Sais in northern Egypt.
Efforts are underway to translate the stela.
Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the stela appears to be related to a military campaign that Apries undertook east of Egypt.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (lived ca. 484-425 B.C.) claimed that Apries fought a losing war against the Phoenicians that left many Egyptian soldiers dead and sparked a civil war in Egypt that ultimately led to Apries being killed and replaced as pharaoh by a man named Amasis. Whether this stela will shed new light on these events is unclear.
These ancient weights helped create Europe’s first free-market more than 3000 years ago
Knowing the weight of a commodity provides an objective way to value goods in the marketplace. But did a self-regulating market even exist in the Bronze Age? And what can weight systems tell us about this?
Diffusion of weighing technology in Western Eurasia (circa 3000-1000 BC)
A team of researchers from the University of Göttingen researched this by investigating the dissemination of weight systems throughout Western Eurasia.
Their new simulation indicates that the interaction of merchants, even without substantial intervention from governments or institutions, is likely to explain the spread of Bronze Age technology to weigh goods. The results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
To determine how different units of weight emerged in different regions, researchers compared all the weight systems in use between Western Europe and the Indus Valley from 3,000-1,000 BC.
Examples of Western Eurasian balance weights of the Bronze Age. A: Spool-shaped weights from Tiryns, Greece (L Rahmstorf). B: Cubic weights from Dholavira, India (E Ascalone). C: Duck-shaped weights from Susa, Iran (E Ascalone). D: flat block weights from Lipari, Italy (N Ialongo).
Analysis of 2,274 balance weights from 127 sites revealed that with the exception of those from the Indus Valley, new and very similar units of weight appeared in a gradual spread west of Mesopotamia.
To find out if the gradual formation of these systems could be due to propagation of error from a single weight system, the researchers modelled the creation of 100 new units.
Taking into account factors such as measurement error, the simulation supported a single origin between Mesopotamia and Europe. It also showed that the Indus Valley probably developed an independent weight system.
The research demonstrated that if information flow in the Eurasia trade was free enough to support a common weight system, it was likely to be sufficient to react to local price fluctuations.
The weight systems that emerged between Mesopotamia and Europe were very similar. This meant that a single merchant could travel, for instance, from Mesopotamia to the Aegean and from there to Central Europe and never need to change their own set of weights.
The type of weighing scales a Bronze Age merchant would have carried with her when moving from one market to another to trade: suspended replica bone balance scale with flax strings and leather pouches, holding two replica weights in equilibrium
The merchant could trade with foreign partners while simply relying on approximating the weights. There was no international authority that could have regulated the accuracy of weight systems over such a wide territory and long time span. In Europe, beyond the Aegean, centralised authorities did not even exist at this time.
The researchers conclude that the emergence of accurate weight systems must have been the outcome of a global network regulating itself from the bottom-up.
“With the results of our statistical analysis and experimental tests, it is now possible to prove the long-held hypothesis that free entrepreneurship was already a primary driver of the world economy even as early as the Bronze Age,” explains Professor Lorenz Rahmstorf from the Institute for Prehistory and Early History, University of Göttingen.
Merchants could interact freely, establish profitable partnerships, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by long-distance trade.
“The idea of a self-regulating market existing some 4,000 years ago puts a new perspective on the global economy of the modern era,” says Dr Nicola Ialongo, University of Göttingen. He adds, “Try to imagine all the international institutions that currently regulate our modern world economy: is global trade possible thanks to these institutions, or in spite of them?”
A Greek Farmer Stumbled on a 3,400-Year-Old Tomb in His Olive Grove While Parking His Car
The Crete local was trying to park his vehicle when he accidentally unearthed the ancient Minoan grave. Sometime between 1400 and 1200 B.C., two Minoan men were laid to rest in an underground enclosure carved out of the soft limestone native to southeast Crete.
Both were entombed within larnakes—intricately embossed clay coffins popular in Bronze Age Minoan society—and surrounded by colorful funerary vases that hinted at their owners’ high status.
Eventually, the burial site was sealed with stone masonry and forgotten, leaving the deceased undisturbed for roughly 3,400 years.
Earlier this summer, a local farmer accidentally brought the pair’s millenia-long rest to an abrupt end, George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo. The farmer was attempting to park his vehicle beneath a shaded olive grove on his property when the ground gave way, forcing him to find a new parking spot.
As he started to drive off, the unidentified local noticed a four-foot-wide hole that had emerged in the patch of land he’d just vacated. Perched on the edge of the gaping space, the man realized he’d unintentionally unearthed “a wonderful thing.”
An ancient Minoan tomb was discovered in this hole in Crete. Courtesy of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
An ancient Minoan tomb was discovered in this hole in Crete.
According to a statement, archaeologists from the local heritage ministry, Lassithi Ephorate of Antiquities, launched excavations below the farmer’s olive grove at Rousses, a small village just northeast of Kentri, Ierapetra, in southeast Crete.
They identified the Minoan tomb, nearly perfectly preserved despite its advanced age, in a pit measuring roughly four feet across and eight feet deep. Space’s interior was divided into three carved niches accessible by a vertical trench.
The eight-foot deep pit contained two ancient coffins and an array of funerary vases
In the northernmost niche, archaeologists found a coffin and an array of vessels scattered across the ground. The southernmost niche yielded a second sealed coffin, as well as 14 ritual Greek jars called amphorae and a bowl.
Two Minoan men were buried in the Crete tomb roughly 3,400 years ago
Forbes’ Kristina Kilgrove writes that the high quality of the pottery left in the tomb indicates the individuals buried were relatively affluent. She notes, however, that other burial sites dating to the same Late Minoan period feature more elaborate beehive-style tombs.
“These [men] could be wealthy,” Kilgrove states, “but not the wealthiest.”
Unlike many ancient tombs, the Kentri grave was never discovered by thieves, Argyris Pantazis, deputy mayor of Local Communities, Agrarian and Tourism of Ierapetra, tells local news outlet Cretapost.
In fact, the site likely would have remained sealed in perpetuity if not for the chance intervention of a broken irrigation pipe, which watered down the soil surrounding the farmer’s olive grove and led to his unexpected parking debacle.
“We are particularly pleased with this great archaeological discovery as it is expected to further enhance our culture and history,” Pantazis added in his interview with Cretapost. “Indeed, this is also a response to all those who doubt that there were Minoans in Ierapetra.”
According to Archaeology News Network, most Minoan settlements found on Crete are located in the lowlands and plains rather than the mountainous regions of Ierapetra. Still, a 2012 excavation in Anatoli, Ierapetra, revealed a Minoan mansion dating to between 1600 and 1400 B.C., roughly the same time period as the Kentri tomb.
This latest find offers further proof of the ancient civilization’s presence—as Mark Cartwright notes for Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Minoans are most renowned for their labyrinthine palace complexes, which likely inspired the classic Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.
According to legend, Queen Pasiphae of Crete gave birth to the Minotaur, a fierce half-man, half-bull hybrid, after falling for a bull sent to Earth by the Greek god Zeus.
The Minotaur, doomed to an eternity spent wandering the halls of an underground labyrinth and killing anyone it encountered, was eventually defeated by the demigod Theseus, who relied on an enchanted ball of thread provided by the king’s daughter, Ariadne, to escape the maze.
Much of the Minoans’ history remains unclear, but Forbes’ Kilgrove reports that natural disasters, including the eruption of the Thera volcano, an earthquake and a tsunami, contributed to the group’s downfall, enabling enemies such as the Mycenaeans to easily invade.
Analysis of the excavated Kentri tomb may offer further insights into the Minoan-Mycenaean rivalry, as well as the Cretan civilization’s eventual demise.
Have researchers found 30-million-year-old “Giant Rings” in the Bosnian mountains?
Through the last few decades, scientists have discovered a number of mysterious ancient giant rings at numerous locations in the Bosnian mountains.
According to the local population, it is believed that these “artefacts” date back to the era of the Pannonian Sea, and legends suggest these were used by giant beings who inhabited the area in the distant past ― millions of years ago!
Although the Pannonian Sea disappeared around 600 000 years ago, it was not a short-lived sea. In fact, it lasted for about 10 million years. Although, the sources on this duration differ ― some claiming that the sea lasted for over 30 million years. The Pannonian sea existed during the Miocene and Pliocene eras.
Recent discoveries point to a time when giants roamed the Earth. The mysterious giant rings that were found on top of mountains suggest that these were used by giant beings who inhabited the region millions of years ago.
Local residents have mixed feelings about these mysterious rings. Some have suggested a particularly simple explanation. According to some local residents, these “giant” rings belong to the Austro-Hungarian empire put in place to help the transport of timber across the harsh mountains of the region.
Large metal hoops that were used to moor ships during the Pannonian Sea are unknown to most today.
Those who support this theory point out that these giant rings were somehow placed inside the mountains at a time when the Pannonian Sea still existed. These giant rings were used to bind ships, and the region was used as a seaport.
There are legends in the region that speak of giants and their huge ships. There are assumptions that these giant rings were made by giants, ancient ship owners and sailors who inhabited the region in the distant past.
But is it possible that these rings are millions of years old? If so, how? What material are they made of? As there has been no “official” research done the possibilities are endless.
Local residents have stated that there are numerous other findings in the area which cannot be explained, and all of these findings are being deliberately hidden from the people.
These giant rings and giant rocks that seem to be finely carved are found at the hills around Vogosca between Breza and Vares, near Dubrovnik and in several places in eastern Bosnia. There are also four of these at Bjelasnica and Vlasic, Vranica, Prenj, Velez, then Majevica, Bukovica near Travnik, above Stolac. The locals stress how important it is to examine these findings.
Bosnia’s forest regions where the ancient rings and rocks are found.
The locals have talked about these mysterious rings for years, and there are mixed feelings when it comes to findings like these. While some suggest that it is literally impossible for these giant rings to be that old, others believe that this points to the fact that giants roamed the Earth in the distant past, and evidence of this can be found all over the world.
Those who firmly believe it is impossible for these giant rings to be that old point to the fact that the Pannonian Sea was located in the area of the Pannonian Plain about 30 million years ago. This sea disappeared around 600,000 years ago.
There simply would not be a good reason to create giant rings to bind ships to if these ships wouldn’t be able to reach these “ports”. Yet many people have seen the giant rings, but some suggest these were not used to tie boats to the coast.
At the time of the Pannonian Sea, there were no people, thus, who could have constructed the boats? So if there was no one to build a boat, who would have created the rings? The first hominins who built tools date back to around 200,000 years ago, the time gap between them and the Pannonian Sea is 400,000 years.
Kozara, where the giant rings were found, was an island in the Paratethyan ocean 50,000 years ago. As the Pannonian Sea withdrew, the coastlines appeared. This is why, Dragan Romčević, director of the National Park “Kozara” states that these giant rings can not be from this period.
Others suggest that these “giant rings” were put in place in the recent past and were used to secure “weather balloons” to the ground.
Large metal hoops that were used to moor ships during the Pannonian Sea are unknown to most today.
Dejan pelvis, a professor of history at the Prijedor Gymnasium believes that these rings of Kozara are one of those incredible mysteries associated to the past. All these mysteries share one and same fact ― that no one can accurately explain their origin and purpose. These findings are shrouded in mystery.
This is a topic on which scientists cannot offer explanations, simply because it lacks logical facts, and since science cannot explain these mysterious artefacts, people have no choice but to interpret the phenomena themselves, and then, everything becomes possible.
Roman sarcophagus discovered in Bath contained two skeletons, with one laid at the other’s feet
In the British city of Bath, two separate skeletons were discovered inside a Roman-era tomb. A well-preserved body was discovered face-down with the partial remains of another person positioned at its feet.
Beads and pottery that may have contained food were also discovered at the site, suggesting they were some kind of offering.
The limestone casket, along with stone walls and evidence of a cremation burial, were uncovered at Bathwick Roman Cemetery in southwest Bath’s Sydney Gardens, the last remaining Georgian pleasure gardens in the UK.
The casket, found in a grave about six feet long, 23 inches wide and 19 inches deep, was north-facing, suggesting it was a pagan burial.
The cremation burial is the only recorded one of its kind in the Bathwick Cemetery, according to the BBC.
A nearly 2,000-year-old Roman sarcophagus containing two bodies was discovered in Bath, England. Its northern-facing orientation and the presence of offerings suggest it was a pagan burial, archaeologists say
‘Having a human skeleton directly associated with a coffin is a rarity and to have this one associated with what was probably votive offering and a nearby human cremation, allows a very rare glimpse into funerary practices in the region almost two millennia ago,’ archaeologist Kelly Madigan, who worked on the excavation, said in a statement.
Calling the discovery ‘a real career highlight,’ Madigan said that testing of the bones could offer new information, ‘where we can delve deeper into just who the people we found in the coffin were, where they were from and their health and welfare.’
The limestone casket, along with stone walls and evidence of a cremation burial, were uncovered at Bathwick Roman Cemetery in southwest Bath
Historic England advisor Sylvia Warman called the discovery ‘a first for Bathwick and a really significant find for Roman Bath and the World Heritage Site.’
The baths remain a major tourist attraction and receive over a million visitors a year.
While habitation goes back to the Neolithic era, the city proper was founded in 43AD, when the Romans turned a patch of marshland into the ancient world’s equivalent of a luxury spa, taking advantage of the millions of gallons of warm water bubbling up from natural hot springs.
They named it Aquae Sulis, after the Celtic goddess Sulis, associated with the Roman deity Minerva.
The Romans constructed elaborate baths in the city in the first century AD, taking advantage of natural hot springs that provided warm water. More than a million tourists visit Bath each year
A temple dedicated to Minerva was erected in 70 AD, and the bathhouse was expanded and improved over the next 300 years.
By the 5th century, with the fall of the Roman empire, the baths fell into disrepair and were eventually abandoned.
In 2007, archaeologists found a massive hoard of 30,000 Roman coins less than 500 feet from the baths, the BBC reported. The collection, one of the largest ever found in the country, dates to about 270 AD.
1,800-year-old headless Greek statue found at Turkey’s Metropolis site
Archaeologists in western Turkey have unearthed a 1,800-year-old marble statue from the ancient ruins of Metropolis, known as ‘City of the Mother Goddess’ during the Roman period.
Earlier this month, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Department announced the discovery of the Roman-era statue, a robed female figure with her head and both arms missing.
The limbs were probably attached separately, according to Art News, though more work needs to be done to uncover the identity of the figure, researchers say.
The current excavation is a collaboration between the ministry and Celal Bayar University in Manisa, Turkey.
Metropolis (Greek for ‘mother state’) was a name bestowed on various cities, though this one is in Western Turkey’s Torbali municipality, about 25 miles from modern-day Izmir, the country’s third-largest city.
The headless Greek statue.
Humans have occupied the land for at least 8,000 years, since the Neolithic period.
Artefacts indicate it was inhabited by Hittites during the Bronze Age (when it was known as Puranda) and was also active during the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
It was founded as Metropolis by the Greeks in roughly 300 BC and, despite its matriarchal name, was home to one of only two known temples devoted to Ares, the Greek god of War.
The sculpture dates to Metropolis’ Roman era—when the empire controlled Anatolia, the portion of Turkey located on the Asian continent.
Roman scientist-philosopher Ptolemy described the town as an important trading post in Lydia, about halfway along the ancient trade routes between Smyrna and Ephesus.
Though the figure’s head and arms are missing archaeologists say she is otherwise quite well-preserved
Fieldwork began in the region in the 1970s, with excavations at Metropolis starting in the mid-1980s.
Since then, archaeologists have uncovered more than 11,000 artefacts, according to Art News, including coins, ceramics, glass, ivory and metal objects.
The city ‘has a deep-rooted history dating back to prehistoric times,’ Celal Bayar University archaeologist Serdar Aybek told the Turkish-language Demirören News Agency in January, according to an English-language report in Arkeonews.
‘It has the fertility brought by the Küçük Menderes River. It is a region that has always been settled.’
Notable finds include a Hellenistic marble seat of honour uncovered in the outdoor theatre, elaborate Roman baths featuring sculptures of Zeus and Thyke, goddess of good fortune, as well as other Roman-era buildings including a sports complex, government building, various shops, galleries and public toilets.
More recently, four massive interlocking cisterns big enough to hold 600 tons of water were uncovered in the city’s acropolis last year. It’s believed they were used during the Late Roman period and may have been helpful when the city was under siege by invaders.
The Greek theatre at Metropolis restored in 2001. Photo taken 2007.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, when the cisterns were no longer used to provide water, they became a garbage dump, with animal bones, broken ceramics and other detritus of daily life found on the site, according to the Daily Sabah.
The Turkish government opened the ‘City of the Mother Goddess’ to tourists in 2014.
Ancient Greek Pyramids: A Unique Phenomenon and an Archaeological Mystery
The so-called Greek Pyramids, also called the Pyramids of Argolis, are several frusta or truncated pyramidal shaped structures and “blockhouses”, located on the eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula in present-day Greece.
Although the structures are distinct in form and shape from typical Ancient Greek architecture, mention of the monuments in antiquity is scarce, with only the geographer Pausanias (AD 110-180) observing a single pyramidal monument (although associating Pausanias’s text with the Pyramids of Argolis is contested) in his Corinthiaka that states:
“Traveling from Argus to the region of Epidaurus, there is a building to the right that resembles very much a pyramid and bears relief carved shields of the shape of the Argolic shields.
In this place, Proetus had battled with Acrisius for the throne and they say that the battle ended without a winner; for this reason, they were later reconciled, as none could achieve a decisive victory.
It is said that this was the first time that men and armies equipped with shields clashed; for those that fell in this battle from both armies, since they were compatriots and even relatives, a common tomb was built in that place.”
Groups of possible pyramidal structures have been identified at Ligourio (Argolida), Kambia (Argolida), Viglafia (Lakonia), and Elliniko (Argolida), with the pyramid of Hellinikon at Elliniko being the best preserved and studied.
Dating of the monuments has been troublesome due to the lack of archaeological material, with previously disputed studies of ceramics from the Protohelladic II period dated to 2800–2500 BC, early thermoluminescence dating giving a range of 2500–2000 BC, but many proponents support the proposed construction during the Late Classical Hellenistic period, centred on the later 4th century BC.
Historical theories for the structures function have tried to establish an “Egyptian connection”, suggesting guard houses for Egyptian mercenaries, or burial practices that paralleled with the Ancient Egyptians, but these theories lack all credibility and without evidence.
The more likely theory looks at the structures’ presence of internal walls, small rooms, cisterns, the provision of a water supply, and internally fastened doors within the monuments, that Young (1957) and Fracchia (1985) proposed was for an agricultural function, possibly with a secondary function of providing a refuge in turbulent times.
Archaeologists discover the 18th-century wooden road
Archaeologists have discovered a well-preserved stretch of a late 17th or early 18th-century wooden road in Jarosław, southeastern Poland. At 100 feet long, it is one of the longest wooden roads ever discovered in what is now Poland.
The remains were discovered in February during archaeological exploration of the site of planned sewer work in the historic centre of the city.
The road led to a gate in the city walls opening west towards Kraków. It was part of a 250-mile route connecting Bielsko Biała to Lviv in modern-day Ukraine. It was a dirt road, except for the section inside Jarosław.
Archaeologists have excavated a wooden road in the town of Jarosław, located in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship of Poland.
The road was 10 feet wide, so must have been one-way traffic only because that was not enough space for two lanes. It was made of timbers mounted on transverse wooden joists. The wood was probably oak and it was very sturdy.
There are no hoof marks or wheel ruts even though it must have been a busy street as Jarosław held one of the largest market fairs in Europe and was a major hub of trade in the region. It was in active use for about 100 years before paved roads were built over it.
Some of the roads have been removed to the Jarosław Museum for conservation and study. Objects found during the removal of the timbers — coins, show leather, nails — will go on display in the museum.
The section still in place will be displayed in situ in the coming months.
The road was laser scanned before removal so a detailed animated model could be made accurate to the millimetre.
