EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Face of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” Recreated From Death Mask

Face of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” Recreated From Death Mask

Researchers say they have created the “most lifelike” reconstruction of the face of Bonnie Prince Charlie. A team at the University of Dundee’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification used death masks to recreate the Scottish prince’s looks.

After his death in 1788, a cast of the prince’s face was taken, which was common for notable figures at the time.

This was painstakingly photographed and mapped along with software allowing the experts to “de-age” the prince.

Charles Edward Stuart was renowned for his good looks and has captivated a new generation of audiences through the TV show Outlander.

The resulting images show the prince with blond ringlets, wearing a white shirt, and with blotchy patches on his skin.

It recreates how he could have looked at the time of the Jacobite rising, where he was unsuccessful in his attempt to restore his father, James Francis Edward Stuart, to the British throne.

Barbora Vesela, a masters student who initiated the project, said: “I have looked at previous reconstructions of historical figures and was interested as to how these could be done differently.

“I wanted to create an image of what he would have looked like during the Jacobite rising.

“There are death masks of Bonnie Prince Charlie that are accessible, while some are in private collections.

“We also know that he suffered a stroke before he died, so that made the process of age regression even more interesting to me.”

Portraits of Bonnie Prince Charlie have depicted the prince as a handsome man

In 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart sought to regain the British throne for his father when he was aged just 24.

Despite some initial successes on the battlefield, his army was defeated at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, in April 1746.

Bonnie Prince Charlie spent the next five months as a fugitive before fleeing to France and living on the continent for the rest of his life.

He died in Palazzo Muti in Rome, at the age of 67, after suffering a stroke.

After his death, a cast of the prince’s face was taken, which was common for notable figures at the time.

Pivotal moment

Researchers examined copies of the masks, at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, and The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow, creating a composite over several months.

Ms Vesela took photographs from all around the masks and used software to make a 3D model using almost 500 images.

She said: “It has been a pleasure to work with these artefacts. The access I have been given has been incredible.

“There are moments, when you are working with the masks, that it suddenly strikes you that this was once a living person.

“We don’t tend to think about the age of people when we study history, but Prince Charlie was just 24 years old when he landed in Scotland and to visualise how young he was at this pivotal moment in history is fascinating.

“Hopefully this recreation encourages people to think about him as a person, instead of just a legend.”

The work will feature as part of the University of Dundee’s annual Masters Show, which opens to the public on Saturday.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

The three-headed statue of Goddess Hecate discovered in Turkey’s Mersin

The three-headed statue of Goddess Hecate discovered in Turkey’s Mersin

In the ancient city of Kelenderis in Mersin, located in the south of Turkey, the statue of the 3-headed goddess Hecate, which is evaluated to be 2300 years old, and ceramics belonging to the Hellenistic period were unearthed.

The ancient city of Kelenderis is located at the Mediterranean coast of Turkey in modern town of Aydincik, which is in the province of Mersin.

In the ancient city of Kelenderis, the excavation and restoration/conservation works started in 1987 continue uninterruptedly.

There have been exciting developments in the studies carried out this year under the coordination of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Batman University.

Head of the excavation, Associate Professor Mahmut Aydın, stated that the Roman period floors were unearthed in this season’s excavations and that they found a large amount of Hellenistic ceramics in these floor fillings.

Statue depicts three similar figures of Goddess Hecate joined together and facing in different directions. This is because these statues were used at Crossroads. These statues, which are few in number, were placed on pedestals, where the directions were inscribed. Hecate statues also marked boundaries.

Stating that the Hecate figurine was found in the underfloor fillings behind the odeon, Aydın continued as follows: “The 3-headed Hecate figurine was found in the layer where the ceramics were found. The figurine is about 20 centimeters.”

“Looking at the connection between the goddess Hecate and Kelenderis, we know that there is a Hecate temple in the ancient city of Lagina in Muğla, and an inscription found there indicates that Kelenderis is among the cities that participate in competitions held every five years in honor of Hecate.

Furthermore, Kelenderis is also among the cities that show respect for the sacred area of Hecate and pledge not to attack it. Therefore, the discovery of the Hecate figurine in this excavation site is meaningful.  We evaluate that the work is 2300-2400 years old and belongs to the Hellenistic period.”

In ancient Greece, Hecate was venerated as a goddess of the underworld, capable of both good and evil.

She was associated with magic, witchcraft, the moon, and creatures of the night such as ghosts. Her face was also depicted on doorways.

The work will be delivered to the Silifke Museum after its examination.

ANTARCTICA, WORLD

280-Million-Year-Old Fossil Forest Discovered in Antarctica

280-Million-Year-Old Fossil Forest Discovered in Antarctica

Geologists have discovered 280-million-year-old tree fossils in what is believed to be evidence of the oldest polar forest found in Antarctica.

280-Million-Year-Old Fossil Forest Discovered in Antarctica
The polar forest grew at a latitude where plants can’t grow today and scientists are now trying to understand why they went extinct (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee/Screengrab)

Erik Gulbranson and John Isbell from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee trekked across the Transantarctic Mountains during the continent’s summer, between November and January.

They found the ancient ​specimens among the rocks where a leafy forest once grew.

The team have now returned to the frozen slopes once more to find out how the forest could have flourished there.

Professor Gulbranson said people have known about the fossils in Antarctica since around 1910 but most of the region remains unexplored.

The polar forest grew at a latitude where plants can’t grow today and he believed they must have been an extremely hearty species in order to survive. The team is now trying to understand why they went extinct.

“There isn’t anything like that today,” he said. “These trees could turn their growing cycles on and off like a light switch. We know the winter shutoff happened right away, but we don’t know how active they were during the summertime and if they could force themselves into dormancy while it was still light out.”

The trees are believed to have been able to survive by living nearly half the year in absolute darkness followed by up to five months of continuous light.

During the Permian Period, Antarctica was much warmer than it is today. At the time, Antarctica was then still part of Gondwana, the Southern Hemisphere’s supercontinent that incorporated present-day Africa, South America, Arabia, India and Australia.

There would have been a mixture of mosses and ferns and the geologists believe forest stretched across the entirety of Gondwana.

Partial tree trunk with the base preserved, at the site in Svalbard (left) and a reconstruction of what the ancient forest look liked 380 million years ago (right)
Erik Gulbranson on site in Antarctica.
A photograph taken by Captain Scott on his final expedition of Dr Edward Wilson sketching on Beardmore Glacier.

The team of scientists found that these trees were able to transition from summer activity to dormancy during the winter perhaps as quickly as within a month.

In a separate interview with CNN, Prof Gulbranson said that dating the fossils was one of his team’s biggest challenges. He added that recent findings indicated the polar forest was about 280 million years old but that a margin of error could make the trees up to 20 million years older or younger.

This partial trunk fossil was cracked near its base, but two distinct patterns are still visible in the rock: oval leaf bases at the bottom and diamond-shaped leaf bases moving up the trunk toward the top.
280-Million-Year-Old Fossil Forest Discovered in Antarctica
Scientists have since uncovered further evidence of plant life on the continent, including this fossilized fern from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) fossil collection.

The new research aimed to study how such polar ecosystems changed during the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago, he said.

Although research is still ongoing on what caused the mass extinction, many scientists believe 90 per cent of all species were wiped out from the face of the earth, including the polar forest, because of higher global temperatures and ocean acidification caused by an injection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere spanning over 200,000 years.

“This forest is a glimpse of life before the extinction, which can help us understand what caused the event,” Prof Gulbranson said. “It can also give clues to how plants were different than today.”

He added that he believed his work could help understand the effects of contemporary climate change and added that today’s global warming could lead to forests moving towards the North Pole in places like Arctic Siberia and Arctic Canada.

EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

A medieval victim still in his chainmail discovered in Sweden

A medieval victim still in his chainmail discovered in Sweden

A medieval victim still in his chainmail discovered in Sweden

The Battle of Visby was a violent Medieval battle near the town of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland, fought between the inhabitants of Gotland and the Danes, with the latter emerging victorious.

The battle left a lasting archaeological legacy; masses of slaughtered soldiers and citizens lay scattered across what was once a bloody battlefield.

Slashed and broken bones, skeletons still in their chain mail and armour, and smashed skulls, some still with spears and knives protruding out of them. One can only imagine what they endured before they breathed their last breaths.

Visby, A Merchant’s Dream

During the Middle Ages, the island of Gotland, which lies off the coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea, played an important role in the trade between Europe and Russia. As a result of this, the city of Visby flourished.

Since the late 13th century, Visby was a member of a confederation of North-western and Central European merchant towns later known as the Hanseatic League. This league protected the commercial interests of its members and was also a defensive pact.

Greedy King Sets His Sight on Visby

As the Hanseatic League grew in influence, it was seen as a threat by some rulers. One of these was Valdemar IV, the King of Denmark. The Danish ruler is said to have not been satisfied with the fact that the Hanseatic League was a rival to his kingdom’s trade interests.

In addition, Valdemar desired to get his hands on the wealth of the League’s towns. By the middle of the 14th century, Visby, although still a member of the Hanseatic League, is said to have decreased in importance, causing Valdemar to set his eyes on it.

Additionally, it is rumoured that the inhabitants of the town sang drinking songs mocking the king, thus causing him to hold a personal vendetta against them.

Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361 by Karl Gustaf Hellqvist

The Danes Invade

In the summer of 1361, a Danish army set sail for Gotland. The inhabitants of Visby had been warned about the invading Danish force and prepared themselves for the battle. In late July 1361, Valdermar’s army landed on the west coast of Gotland.

The Danish army numbered between 2000 and 2500 men and consisted mainly of experienced Danish and German mercenaries. The defending Gotlanders, on the other hand, numbered around 2000 and were militiamen with little or no experience of battle.   

The Battle of Visby  

The Gotlanders first tried to halt the advance of the Danish army at Mästerby, in the central part of the island. The defenders were crushed, and the Danes continued their march towards Visby. The Battle of Visby was fought before the walls of the town.

Although the militiamen were fighting for their lives and fought as best as they could, they were simply no match for the professional Danish army. As a result, the majority of the defenders were killed, and the town surrendered to Valdemar.

Mass Graves and Fallen Soldiers

Those who fell during the battle were buried in several mass graves and were left in peace until the 20 th century. Between 1905 and 1928, the mass graves were discovered and subsequently excavated.

More than 1100 human remains were unearthed, and these provide us with much detail about the battle. As an example, the types of weapons used during the Battle of Visby could be determined based on the injuries left on these remains.

About 450 of these wounds, for instance, were inflicted by cutting weapons, such as swords and axes, whilst wounds inflicted by piercing weapons, such as spears, and arrows, numbered around 120.

By studying the bones, it was also found that at least a third of the defenders of Visby were the elderly, children, or the crippled, an indication that the situation was very dire indeed for townsfolk.

Victim of invasion of Visby in 1361.
Victim of invasion of Visby in 1361.

It is assumed that the dead were buried quickly after the battle, and therefore were interred with the equipment they had during the battle, which included their armour and weapons.

Thanks to their excellent state of preservation, these remains are a unique archaeological find. Although not many of the defenders were well-equipped for the battle, there are several examples of chainmail shirts, coifs, gauntlets, and a variety of weapons.

These incredible remains, along with the human remains, are today displayed in the Gotland Museum and remain as a lasting legacy to the defenders of Visby.

Armored glove found at Visby.
AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists Discover Paintings of Ancient Egypt in a 2,000-Year-Old Villa in Pompeii

Archaeologists Discover Paintings of Ancient Egypt in a 2,000-Year-Old Villa in Pompeii

A team of archaeologists has discovered impressive paintings of Ancient Egypt in a Roman villa in Pompeii. The portraits clearly show the vast influence the Egyptian culture had in early Roman society. Experts speculate that some of the paintings could possibly underscore an early form of Globalization.

Drawings Show Strong Egyptian Influence on Early Rome

Daily Mail reports that paintings portraying the River Nile were found in a beautiful garden in a luxurious ancient villa in Pompeii. Experts are optimistic that these paintings will reveal a lot of secrets on how the early Roman Empire was influenced by ancient Egypt.

Complex drawings from Casa dell’Efebo – one of the largest households in the city before it was severely damaged during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 – present a series of Nilotic murals with hippopotamuses, crocodiles, lotuses and short-statured men battling with vicious beasts.

Painting of a short-statured man fighting a beast (CC by SA 3.0)

Caitlin Barrett from the department of Classics at Cornell University claimed that the drawings give the house a cosmopolitan touch and outlines how the Romans were influenced by the ancient Egyptian culture such as religion.

“The paintings from the Casa dell’Efebo were created after Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire, but several generations after Augustus’ initial conquest of Egypt. Some researchers have turned to explanations emphasizing religion: maybe paintings of Egyptian landscapes have to do with an interest in Egyptian gods,” she told IBTimes of UK . And added, “Others have interpreted these paintings as political statements: maybe this is about celebrating the conquest of Egypt. I suggest that instead of trying to apply a one-size-fits-all explanation, we should look at context and individual choices.”

Sexual Activity is Present Regardless the Political and Cultural Focus of the Paintings

It’s no secret that Pompeii was famous for its intense sexual life and wild parties. As a result of this lifestyle, many paintings discovered from that era are extremely graphic, including strong doses of excessive sexual content. Let’s not forget that when the city was rediscovered in 1599, the city became buried again (thanks to censorship) for nearly another 150 years before the king of Naples, Charles of Bourbon, ordered the proper excavation of the site during the late 1740s.

As DHWTY reports in a previous Ancient Origins article , despite the erotic nature of these images, it has been suggested that they were merely an idealized version of sex.

Thus, it has been postulated that the lives of the prostitutes at the most famed bordello in Pompeii, Lupanare, was far grimmer than the erotic images suggest. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the main theme of the recently discovered paintings is sex and alcohol consumption.

A fresco found within one of Pompeii’s brothels.

Paintings Could Underscore a Form of Globalization

Despite the obvious themes of the paintings, Barrett also argues that they could underscore how the Romans interacted with the outside world; thus a form of globalization.

The study, which was published in the American Journal of Archaeology, appears to share its views with Barrett’s suggestions and also proclaims that artifacts discovered around the garden of the household and the building’s elaborate architecture such as water installations mimic the diverse nature of the Roman Empire.

Archaeologists Discover Paintings of Ancient Egypt in a 2,000-Year-Old Villa in Pompeii
Representations of sexual activity, music and alcohol consumption are often central to these paintings

Barrett stated as Daily Mail reports , “In this particular assemblage, rather than solely trying to make some kind of statement about Isiac rituals or Roman politics, the owner of this house seems to be asserting a cosmopolitan identity as a citizen of the Empire.

In Pompeian houses at this time, when people are representing faraway lands in domestic art, they are also trying to figure out what it means to them to be participants in the Roman Empire.”

The study adds that the paintings of the Nile in the Pompeian villa provided its owners with a unique chance to come in contact with shifting local and imperial Roman identities and to reproduce a microcosm of the world they lived in, “People sometimes imagine phenomena like globalization to be creations of the modern world.

In fact, if you look at the Roman Empire there are lots of parallels for some of the cross-cultural interactions that are also very much part of our own contemporary world” the researcher of the study concludes at the end.

WORLD

A new look at Ötzi the Iceman’s DNA reveals new ancestry and other surprises

A new look at Ötzi the Iceman’s DNA reveals new ancestry and other surprises

A new look at the Iceman’s DNA reveals that his ancestors weren’t who scientists previously thought.

A new look at Ötzi the Iceman’s DNA reveals new ancestry and other surprises
Though the Iceman mummy’s skin is obviously dark, scientists used to think that was a result of being frozen in a glacier for more than 5,000 years. A new genetic analysis reveals that Ötzi really was dark-skinned.

In 2012, scientists compiled a complete picture of Ötzi’s genome; it suggested that the frozen mummy found melting out of a glacier in the Tyrolean Alps had ancestors from the Caspian steppe (SN: 2/28/12). But something didn’t add up.

The Iceman is about 5,300 years old. Other people with steppe ancestry didn’t appear in the genetic record of central Europe until about 4,900 years ago.

Ötzi “is too old to have that type of ancestry,” says archaeogeneticist Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The mummy “was always an outlier.”

Krause and colleagues put together a new genetic instruction book for the Iceman.

The old genome was heavily contaminated with modern people’s DNA, the researchers report August 16 in Cell Genomics. The new analysis reveals that “the steppe ancestry is completely gone.”

But the Iceman still has oddities. About 90 percent of Ötzi’s genetic heritage comes from Neolithic farmers, an unusually high amount compared with other Copper Age remains, Krause says.

The Iceman’s new genome also reveals he had male-pattern baldness and much darker skin than artistic representations suggest.

Genes conferring light skin tones didn’t become prevalent until 4,000 to 3,000 years ago when early farmers started eating plant-based diets and didn’t get as much vitamin D from fish and meat as hunter-gathers did, Krause says.

As Ötzi and other ancient people’s DNA illustrate, the skin color genetic changes took thousands of years to become commonplace in Europe.

“People that lived in Europe between 40,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago were as dark as people in Africa, which makes a lot of sense because [Africa is] where humans came from,” he says.

“We have always imagined that [Europeans] became light-skinned much faster. But now it seems that this happened actually quite late in human history.”

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Human Remains and Jade Ring Found at Maya Site in Mexico

Human Remains and Jade Ring Found at Maya Site in Mexico

Within the priority project of the Mayan Train, the application of the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza), by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), allows research and conservation of pre-Columbian monuments from the sites of Palenque, Moral-Reforma and El Tigre, located in Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche, respectively. In the latter, the discovery of a human skeleton carrying a jade ring, whose antiquity is estimated at around 1,200 years, was recorded.

Burial Platform 1E El Tigre.

When participating in the morning conference of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the general director of the INAH, Diego Prieto Hernández, reported on this discovery and on the application of Promeza in these heritage sites, “which allows the reconfiguration of the present to from the recovery and disclosure of the past”.

The skeleton, he explained, was discovered as part of a funerary offering, which was located inside platform 1E, to the west of the monumental complex known as Structure 1 of the El Tigre Archaeological Zone.

The ritual deposit consisted of two large-format vessels covered with ceramic bowls, as lids.

One of them particularly drew the attention of archaeologists, because it contained the skeletal remains of a young individual, placed in a flexed position and accompanied by a showy and well-preserved jade ring as a distinctive element.

Based on the characteristics of the vessels, the deposit can be associated to the Late Classic period (AD 600-800), coinciding with the population and political heyday of El Tigre.

Prieto Hernández indicated that the investigation will continue in the laboratory, where a micro-excavation will be carried out, in order to specify anthropophysical data and find out if it had other associated elements, such as seeds or smaller-format ornaments.

With this skeleton, noted the head of the INAH, there are 177 pre-Hispanic human burials located in Section 1 of the Mayan Train, through two aspects: during the monitoring of archaeological rescues in the laying of the railways, and the application of the Promise in the three mentioned areas.

As of August 14, 2023, he said, 2,698 real estate have also been preserved; 248 furniture elements; 281,353 ceramic fragments and 55 natural features associated with the presence of ancient human groups in this branch of the train, which runs from Palenque, in Chiapas, to Escárcega, in Campeche.

With regard to the Archaeological Zone of Palenque, in Chiapas, the anthropologist explained that through the Promeza the attention of the Temple of the Foliated Cross, the mortuary chamber of the Temple of the Inscriptions, houses A and D of the Palace and the buildings J1 and J5 of Group IV.

The new signage for the site, he added, is in the printing phase; the reconfiguration of the “Alberto Ruz L’huillier” Site Museum reports 30% progress, and the construction of the Visitor Service Center (Catvi) has 99% progress.

In the Moral-Reforma Archaeological Zone, in Tabasco, where a Catvi is also being built and signage is being renewed, the Promeza adds 43% progress in the investigation of Plaza Oriente, as well as in excavations and consolidations of various housing units.

Finally, in the El Tigre Archaeological Zone, in Campeche, progress is being made in the exploration of the aforementioned Structure 1, and in the investigation and conservation of the Market Square and the Main Square, while the so-called Triadic Complex is being prepared. for its opening to national and international tourism.

In this patrimonial site, the general director of INAH concluded, a Catvi is also being built, with 5% progress, and signage and visitor infrastructure are optimized.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Archaeologists Find Massive Underground World Belonging To A Long Lost Civilization In Peru

Archaeologists Find Massive Underground World Belonging To A Long Lost Civilization In Peru

Researchers in Peru have discovered a complex underground world belonging to the ancient Chavín culture that has been identified as burial chambers that date back thousands of years.

The culture developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru between 1,300 and 550 BC. The Chavín extended its influence to other civilizations along the coast.

The Ancient Chavin civilization developed advanced knowledge not only in metallurgy, but in soldering, and temperature control. The ancient Chavin used early techniques to develop refined gold work.

Not, researchers have discovered galleries, ceramics and even a place where this civilization carried out burials, located beneath the surface. They say it’s the most important archaeological discovery made in the last 50 years.

Archaeologists Find Massive Underground World Belonging To A Long Lost Civilization In Peru
Seen in this image are the new underground galleries that have been found containing the first human burials of the Chavin period.

Since June of 2018, a team of archaeologists has unearthed three new galleries in an area adjacent to the circular plaza of Chavín. In the place, they have found remarkable pieces of ceramics, utensils and intact human burials.

According to an American anthropologist and archaeologist John Rick, in charge of the Archaeological and Conservation Research Program of Chavín, the three discovered galleries come from the late period of this civilization that developed between 1,300 and 550 BC.

“What these galleries show is that Chavín has a much larger underground world than we think,” said Rick.

The Ministry of Culture estimates that to date only 15% of the area has been explored.

Inside one of these underground galleries, archaeologists discovered artefacts that belonged to the later Huaraz culture.

These successive occupations, found at different levels in the archaeological complex demonstrate the cultural and religious importance that Chavin had in the central highlands for centuries.

The project’s specialists used small robots with built-in micro-cameras to carry out the explorations. These machines – designed on-site by engineers from Stanford University – entered very small areas and discovered cavities in the Chavin labyrinths, where pottery was preserved.

Chavin de Huantar was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. So far 35 interconnected underground passageways have been found at the site, Peru’s culture ministry said.

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