Italy said Monday it had recovered from a Belgian collector hundreds of illegally gathered archaeological finds dating as far back as the sixth century BC, worth 11 million euros.
A police officer handles one of the nearly 800 archeological pieces ‘of exceptional rarity and inestimable value’ recovered from a Belgian collector.
The nearly 800 pieces “of exceptional rarity and inestimable value”, including stelae, amphorae and other works, came from clandestine excavations in Apulia in Italy’s southeastern tip, according to the Carabinieri police in charge of cultural heritage.
The investigation began in 2017 after a state archaeology lab in Apulia noticed in European art catalogues that decorative elements from a Daunian funerary stele belonging to a “wealthy Belgian collector” resembled those found within a fragment in a southern Italian museum.
That flat stone slab from Daunia—a historical region of Apulia—in the collection of the Belgian collector was missing a piece in its centre.
An official within the restoration lab noticed that the piece in the museum’s collection completed the design of a shield and a warrior on horseback that was missing on the stele.
“During the course of the search, a veritable ‘archaeological treasure’ was recovered, consisting of hundreds of Apulian figurative ceramic finds and other Daunian stelae, all illegally exported from Italy, which were then seized in Belgium,” read a statement from police.
Italy was able to repatriate the works after all the legal appeals of the collector were dismissed, police said.
Besides stelae, the collection includes vases painted with red figures, amphorae, black glazed ceramics, and numerous terracotta figurines. The pieces date back to between the sixth and third centuries BC.
Italian hospital uses CT scan to unveil secrets of an Egyptian mummy
Researchers believe they can reconstruct the life and death of the Egyptian priest and understand which kinds of products were used to mummify the body.
Medical radiology technicians prepare a CT scan to do a radiological examination of an Egyptian mummy in order to investigate its history at the Policlinico hospital in Milan, Italy.
Ancient Egypt met modern medical technology when a mummy underwent a CT scan at an Italian hospital as part of a research project to discover its secrets.
The mummy of Ankhekhonsu, an ancient Egyptian priest, was transferred from Bergamo’s Civic Archaeological Museum to Milan’s Policlinico hospital, where experts will shed light on his life and the burial customs of almost 3,000 years ago.
“The mummies are practically a biological museum, they are like a time capsule,” said Sabina Malgora, the director of the Mummy Project Research.
Malgora said information on the mummy’s name comes from the sarcophagus dated between 900 and 800 BC, where Ankhekhonsu – which means ‘the god Khonsu is alive’ – is written five times.
Researchers prepare to move an Egyptian mummy from the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bergamo to Milan’s Policlinico hospital to undergo a CT scan in order to investigate its history, in Bergamo.
Researchers believe they can reconstruct the life and death of the Egyptian priest and understand which kinds of products were used to mummify the body.
Researchers prepare to move an Egyptian mummy from the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bergamo to Milan’s Policlinico hospital to undergo a CT scan in order to investigate its history, in Bergamo, Italy.
“Studying ancient diseases and wounds is important for modern medical research … we can study cancer or the arteriosclerosis of the past and this can be useful for modern research,” she said.
Footprints of Last Dinosaurs To Walk on UK Soil 110 Million Years Ago Found in Kent
In the realm of palaeontology, there’s some exciting news! At least six different dinosaur species’ footprints have been unearthed – the very last dinosaurs to walk on UK land 110 million years ago!
Footprints Of Last Dinosaurs To Walk On UK Soil 110 Million Years Ago Found in Kent
These footprints have been discovered in Folkestone, a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England, reports PTI.
“This is the first time dinosaur footprints have been found in strata known as the ‘Folkestone Formation” and it’s quite an extraordinary discovery because these dinosaurs would have been the last to roam in this country before becoming extinct,’ said David Martill, Professor of Palaeobiology, at the University of Portsmouth.
“They were walking around close to where the White Cliffs of Dover are now – next time you’re on a ferry and you see those magnificent cliffs just imagine that,” he said.
Footprint fossils are formed by sediment filling the impression when a dinosaur’s foot pushes into ground
The study titled ‘The youngest dinosaur footprints from England and their palaeoenvironmental implications’ has been published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association” this week.
In fact, some of these unique footprints are also on display at the Folkestone Museum.
According to the study, these newly discovered dinosaur footprints can be referred to as theropod, ornithopod and possibly ankylosaur dinosaurs.
These dinosaur footprints were discovered by researchers in the cliffs and on the foreshore in Folkestone.
The town suffers through stormy conditions that affect the cliff and coastal waters. This is why it’s constantly revealing new fossils.
According to Philip Hadland, Collections and Engagement Curator, at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and the lead author on the paper, “Back in 2011, I came across unusual impressions in the rock formation at Folkestone. They seemed to be repeating and all I could think was they might be footprints”.
He further added, “this was at odds with what most geologists say about the rocks here, but I went looking for more footprints and as the tides revealed more by erosion, I found even better ones.
More work was needed to convince the scientific community of their validity, so I teamed up with experts at the University of Portsmouth to verify what I’d found.”
Plague Victims Identified in Individual Graves in England
In the mid-14th century, Europe was devastated by a major pandemic – the Black Death – which killed between 40 and 60 per cent of the population. Later waves of plague then continued to strike regularly over several centuries.
Plague kills so rapidly it leaves no visible traces on the skeleton, so archaeologists have previously been unable to identify individuals who died of plague unless they were buried in mass graves.
Whilst it has long been suspected that most plague victims received individual burial, this has been impossible to confirm until now.
By studying DNA from the teeth of individuals who died at this time, researchers from the After the Plague project, based at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, have identified the presence of Yersinia Pestis, the pathogen that causes plague.
These include people who received normal individual burials at a parish cemetery and friary in Cambridge and in the nearby village of Clopton.
Reconstruction of plague victim from All Saints, Cambridge
Lead author Craig Cessford of the University of Cambridge said, “These individual burials show that even during plague outbreaks individual people were being buried with considerable care and attention.
This is shown particularly at the friary where at least three such individuals were buried within the chapter house. Cambridge Archaeological Unit conducted excavations on this site on behalf of the University in 2017.”
“The individual at the parish of All Saints by the Castle in Cambridge was also carefully buried; this contrasts with the apocalyptic language used to describe the abandonment of this church in 1365 when it was reported that the church was partly ruinous and ‘the bones of dead bodies are exposed to beasts’.”
The study also shows that some plague victims in Cambridge did, indeed, receive mass burials.
Yersinia Pestis was identified in several parishioners from St Benet’s, who were buried together in a large trench in the churchyard excavated by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit on behalf of Corpus Christi College.
This part of the churchyard was soon afterwards transferred to Corpus Christi College, which was founded by the St Bene’t’s parish guild to commemorate the dead including the victims of the Black Death. For centuries, the members of the College would walk over the mass burial every day on the way to the parish church.
Cessford concluded, “Our work demonstrates that it is now possible to identify individuals who died from plague and received individual burials.
This greatly improves our understanding of the plague and shows that even in incredibly traumatic times during past pandemics people tried very hard to bury the deceased with as much care as possible.”
According to a Public Library of Science statement, a team of researchers led by Mª Ángeles Medina-Alcaide of the University of Cantabria tested possible sources of light employed by Paleolithic peoples to reach the deepest, darkest areas of caves.
Humans need light to access the deepest areas of caves–and these visits also depend on the type of light available, like light intensity and duration, area of illumination, and colour temperature all determine how the cave environment can be used.
In this study, Medina-Alcaide and colleagues use archaeological evidence of lighting remains found across several Paleolithic caves featuring cave art in Southwest Europe to experimentally replicate the artificial lighting systems presumably used by the original human cave dwellers, allowing immediate empirical observations.
The authors conducted their experiments at Isuntza 1 Cave in the Basque region of Spain. Their replicated lighting was based as much as possible on archaeological evidence found in similar Paleolithic caves and included five replicated torches (made variably from ivy, juniper, oak, birch, and pine resins), two stone lamps using animal fat (bone marrow from cow and deer), and a small fireplace (oak and juniper wood).
They found that the different lighting systems all had diverse features, suggesting their likely selection and use across different contexts.
Wooden torches made of multiple sticks worked best for exploring caves or crossing wide spaces since they projected light in all directions (up to almost six meters in the experiments), were easy to transport and didn’t dazzle the torchbearer despite having a light intensity of almost five times greater than a double-wicked grease lamp.
Torchlight lasted for an average of 41 minutes in this study, with the shortest-lived torch burning 21 minutes, and the longest burning 61 minutes. The torches tended to function irregularly and required close supervision when burning–though they were easy to relight via oxygenation (moving the torch quickly from side to side).
Set of photographs of stone lamp experiment.
The authors found the main torch disadvantage was the amount of smoke production. In contrast, grease lamps worked best for lighting small spaces over a long period–with a light intensity similar to a candle, they were able to light up to three meters (or more if larger or multiple wicks were added).
Though grease lamps weren’t well-suited for transit due to their dazzling effect and poor floor illumination, they burned consistently and without much smoke for well over an hour, complementing the use of torches.
The authors made one fireplace, a static system, which burned very smokily and was extinguished after 30 minutes. They note that the location was likely not appropriate due to air currents in the cave.
The authors note that the practical insights and observations gained from their experimental replications are invaluable for a deeper understanding of what it may have been like to access the darkest parts of inhabited caves, especially to create art, and emphasize that future experimental lighting studies will be useful in continuing to unravel our ancestors’ activities in their caves.
The authors add: “The artificial lighting was a crucial physical resource for expanding complex social and economic behaviour in Paleolithic groups, especially for the development of the first palaeo-speleological explorations and for the origin of art in caves.”
34 Pre-Columbian Artifacts Returned to Mexico by Germans
DW reports that more than 30 pre-Columbian artefacts have been handed over to Mexico’s embassy in Germany.
Among the archaeological objects returned to Mexico are anthropomorphic figures made of clay, bowls and vessels, and one of the effigy type; stamps and fragments of anthropomorphic figurines.
Mexico has recovered 34 pre-Columbian artifacts that were voluntarily returned by two German private collectors, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
“Two German citizens approached our embassy in Berlin to express their interest in returning archaeological pieces that were in the possession of their families,” said the Mexican foreign minister’s legal consultant, Alejandro Celorio.
The Mexican Culture Ministry tweeted details of the items recovered: “Among the cultural assets there are bowls, vessels, stamps and an Olmec-style anthropomorphic mask.”
The mask, made of rock and from the period 1200-600 B.C., was just one of the objects dating back centuries. Others included anthropomorphic clay figures and a three-legged Mayan clay pot from the period 1000-1521 A.D.
Sensitive issue
Diego Prieto, director of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, highlighted the “growing sensitivity” in the global community about the need to respect cultural heritage and return artefacts.
The recovered pieces were handed over to embassy officials in July of this year.
Twenty-eight of the objects were in the city of Monheim am Rhein in western Germany and the remaining six in Recklinghausen, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) away.
Two Historic Shipwrecks Discovered Off Coast of Singapore
Two centuries-old shipwrecks packed with ceramics and other artefacts have been found off Singapore in a rare discovery that will shed light on the city-state’s maritime heritage, archaeologists said Wednesday.
Two centuries-old shipwrecks have been found off Singapore.
The prosperous island nation has long been a key trading hub on global shipping routes connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
The wrecks were found off Pedra Branca, a rocky outcrop east of Singapore, according to the National Heritage Board and think tank the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, which worked together on the project.
The first wreck, discovered after divers accidentally came across ceramic plates in 2015, was carrying Chinese ceramics that possibly date back to the 14th century when Singapore was known as Temasek.
Some of the items were similar to artefacts found in archaeological digs on land, which showed that Singapore was a trading hub well before the arrival of British colonizers in 1819.
Undersea excavations on the first wreck led to the discovery of the second, which is likely to be the Shah Munchah, a merchant vessel built in India that sank in 1796 while sailing from China to India.
Items recovered from the second wreck ranged from Chinese ceramics to glass and agate objects, as well anchors and cannons, the heritage board and think tank said.
The two wrecks were packed with ceramics.
The survey and recovery of artefacts from the two wrecks was completed this year.
Such cannons were typically mounted on merchant ships used by the East India Company —- the trading behemoth through which the British Empire expanded in Asia—in the 18th and 19th centuries, they added.
The vessel discovered in 2015 was the first ancient shipwreck to be found in Singapore’s waters.
It was carrying “more Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelain than any other documented shipwreck in the world,” said Michael Flecker, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s archaeology unit.
“Many of the pieces are rare, and one is believed to be unique.”
The Yuan dynasty existed in what is now China in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Much of the Chinese cargo in the second wreck was destined for eventual shipping to Britain, said Flecker.
Study Suggests Neanderthals and Modern Humans Met in Israel
Chronological research at the Boker Tachtit site in Ein Avdat National Park, in Israel’s Negev desert, provides the first proof of the two cultures’ coexistence in the Negev and pinpoints the time when modern humans left Africa – 50,000 years ago.
Where and when did modern humans and Neanderthal man meet? Groundbreaking research based on re-excavation of the important prehistoric site of Boker Tachtit in Ein Avdat National Park has identified a clearly defined area where the two populations existed at the same time, determining that the species met in the Negev, 50,000 years ago.
The research, published on Wednesday in the prestigious scientific journal PNAS, is led by Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Genetic studies have shown that modern humans and Neanderthals met in the distant past in the geographical region of Eurasia (which includes Israel) and even exchanged genes. However, the exact time and place of these encounters have remained unknown, until now.
New research based on renewed excavations at the important prehistoric site of Boker Tachtit in Ein Avdat National Park identified the earliest evidence of modern human activity in the Negev in the same time frame Neanderthal man inhabited the region. The study provides the first concrete proof for the coexistence of the two cultures in the Middle East.
The research, published on Wednesday in the prestigious scientific journal PNAS and led by Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Israel Antiquities Authority, ascertains that modern man (Homo sapiens) migrated from Africa to Israel 50,000 years ago.
“Boker Tachtit is the first known site reached by a modern man outside Africa, which is why the site and its precise dating are so important,” says Dr. Omry Barzilai, excavation director at the Boker Tachtit site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The dating of the site to 50,000 years ago proves that modern man lived in the Negev at the same time as Neanderthal man, who we know inhabited the region in the same period.
There is no doubt that, as they dwelt in and moved around the Negev, the two species were aware of each other’s existence. Our research on the Boker Tachtit site places an important, well-defined reference point on the timeline of human evolution.”
the excavation was funded by the Max Planck-Weizmann Center for the Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology. As part of the study, dozens of carbon samples from the renewed excavation were analyzed using radiocarbon dating in Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto’s laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Prehistorian Dr. Omry Barzilai inspecting a flint tool from Boker Tachtit
According to Dr. Barzilai, “For the first time in prehistoric research, the results of the dating prove the hypothesis that there was definitely a spatial overlap between the late Mousterian culture, identified with Neanderthal man, and the Emiran culture, which is associated with the emergence of modern man in the Middle East.”
In the period known as the Middle Palaeolithic, 250,000–50,000 years before present, two humanoid species lived in the Old World simultaneously: Neanderthal man and modern man (Homo sapiens).
Neanderthal man lived in Europe and Central Asia, whereas modern man lived in Africa. In particular, the Middle East and the region of Israel were at the limits of the distribution of these two species. They, therefore, also contain remnants of the two populations at different times.
DNA studies show that about 60,000 years ago, groups of modern humans began a widespread migration process from Africa to Asia and Europe and from there to the rest of the world, which ultimately led to the disappearance of Neanderthals and their assimilation into the modern human population.
Therefore, the research hypothesis is that there was short-term interaction between the ancient peoples and cultures along the migration routes, including genetic exchange. The present study is the first to confirm this hypothesis, proving that at least one of these intercultural encounters occurred in Negev some 50,000 years ago.
“What was the nature of the encounter we have identified between the two human species? Did Neanderthals throughout the country become naturally extinct, merging with modern man, or did they disappear in violent ways? These questions will continue to concern us as researchers in the coming years,” concludes Dr. Barzilai.
