ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Investigation in Israel Reveals Wide Range of Artifacts

3,800-year-old baby in a jar unearthed in Israel

Live Science reports that recent archaeological investigations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the ancient port city of Jaffa, which is located on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, have uncovered a middle Bronze Age burial, a pit filled with Hellenistic pottery dated from the fourth to first centuries B.C, coins, and pieces of Roman and medieval glass.

Team member Yoav Arbel said the 3,800-year-old skeletal remains of an infant were found in a jar that may have been intended to protect the delicate remains. “

While such burials of babies are not that rare, it is a mystery why the infants were buried this way, said Yoav Arbel, an archaeologist from the Israel Antiquities Authority who was part of the team that discovered the jar.

3,800-year-old baby in a jar unearthed in Israel
Archaeologists found an infant jar burial about 10 feet (3 meters) under street level in Jaffa, which dated to the Middle Bronze Age II.

Arbel told Live Science, “You might go to the practical thing and say that the bodies were so fragile, [maybe] they felt the need to protect it from the environment, even though it is dead,” Arbel told Live Science.

“But there’s always the interpretation that the jar is almost like a womb, so basically the idea is to return [the] baby back into Mother Earth, or into the symbolic protection of his mother.”

The 4,000-year-old city of Jaffa, where the jar was found, is the older part of Tel Aviv, the second most populated city in Israel after Jerusalem. It was one of the earliest port cities in the world, and has been almost continuously occupied since about 900 B.C., Arbel said

“We’re talking about a city that was ruled by a lot of different people,” Arbel said. “Let’s say that a lot of flags flew from its mast before Israel’s flag of today.”

Despite how strange the baby burial seems to modern eyes, it’s not an unusual find for the region.

“There are different periods when people buried infants in jars in Israel,” Arbel said. “The Bronze Age all the way to less than 100 years ago.” 

The finds were detailed in the 100th issue of the journal Atiqot, which includes more than 50 other studies on archaeology from Jaffa.

A roof tile with a bear stamp found in Jaffa.
A stone with a cross discovered in a Persian period cemetery located in Jaffa.
A stone with a cross discovered in a Persian period cemetery located in Jaffa.
An early Byzantine period mosaic written in Greek from Jaffa saying, in essence, “That’s life!”

Because Jaffa has been almost continuously used for four millennia, the other finds described in the journal span the Hellenistic, Crusader and Ottoman periods.

For instance, at another site, Arbel and his team found a big rubbish pit brimming with pieces of imported amphorae (ceramic vessels) dating to the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first centuries B.C.

These roughly 2,300-year-old amphorae, which were used to hold wine, were crafted on various Greek Aegean Islands such as Rhodes and Kos, Arbel said. This one pit provides more evidence that trade routes between Jaffa and Greece were robust, Arbel said.

Archaeologists also found: 30 coins dating to the Hellenistic, Crusader (12th–13th centuries), late Ottoman (late 18th–early 20th centuries) and British Mandate (1942) periods; the remains of at least two horses and pottery dating to the Ottoman Empire; 95 glass vessel fragments from Roman and Crusader times; and 232 seashells, including those from the Mediterranean Sea, land snails and three mother-of-pearl buttons.

There’s also the witty, ancient Greek mosaic discovered near an A.D. fourth- or fifth-century necropolis, saying “Be of good courage, all who are buried here. This is it!”

In essence, it means “this is life!” and that death is everyone’s shared destiny, said Zvi Greenhut, head of the publication department at the IAA, told Live Science.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Man who died of constipation 1,000 years ago ate grasshoppers for months

Man who died of constipation 1,000 years ago ate grasshoppers for months

One of the worst instances of constipation in the annals of medicine was a native American living in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago. The man’s intestine swelled to six times its usual size due to an inflammation, which made it impossible to digest normal food properly.

Eventually, this horrible illness, known as ‘megacolon‘, caused the man to die. Centuries later,  his remains, mummified by the arid conditions, were found in a rock shelter close to the junction between the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers in South Texas.

Yet there is a positive side to this tale as well. Scientists also discovered that, after examining the mummy, during the last two or three months of his life, the man ate a diet of grasshoppers whose legs had been removed.

The naturally mummified adult male from the late archaic period of Lower Pecos Canyonlands of South Texas had a hugely inflated colon

Since his condition must have made it almost impossible to walk and procure food for himself, it’s likely that the man was fed by somebody else, perhaps family or other members of his community. It’s one of the earliest bits of evidence of hospice care.

“They were taking off the legs,” said Karl Reinhard, a professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “So they were giving him mostly the fluid-rich body — the squishable part of the grasshopper.

In addition to being high in protein, it was pretty high in moisture. So it would have been easier for him to eat in the early stages of his megacolon experience.”

The Skiles mummy from Texas, named after Guy Skiles, the person who first discovered it in 1937, had been stored in various private and public museums.

A segment of the man’s colon, which swelled to six times its normal diameter and is described by scientists as a ‘megacolon’
Man who died of constipation 1,000 years ago ate grasshoppers for months
For the last two to three months of his life in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of modern-day Texas

More recently, in 2003, Reinhard and colleagues published a study in which they reported that the mummy contained 1,2 kilograms (2.6 pounds) of faeces in its huge colon, along with a large quantity of unprocessed food.

This led the researchers to conclude that the unfortunate man was infected with the parasite-borne Chagas disease and suffered from severe malnourishment due to the fact that his body was unable to process food.

In their new study, Reinhard’s team revisited the Skiles mummy, this time using scanning electron microscopy, which offered new clues about the man’s diet during his twilight days.

The researchers examined phytoliths, tiny plant tissue structures that remain intact even after the rest of the plant decays and which are so robust they normally survive the rough, bumpy ride through the human intestinal tract. But in the case of this mummy, the researchers were astonished by the phytoliths found inside it.

Microscopy of minuscule plant remnants, pollen and animal remains, including a mammal hair (centre), extracted from the intestinal tract of a mummy found in Arizona’s Ventana Cave

“The phytoliths were split open, crushed. And that means there was incredible pressure that was exerted on a microscopic level in this guy’s intestinal system, which highlights, even more, the pathology that was exhibited here,” Reinhard said. “I think this is unique in the annals of pathology — this level of intestinal blockage and the pressure that’s associated with it.”

This most recent analysis of the Skiles mummy will appear in a forthcoming chapter of “The Handbook of Mummy Studies,” which also includes best practices for preparing and analyzing the contents of mummified intestines.

In the same handbook, Reinhard also described two other mummies who also received special care during their last days.

One of the mummies belongs to a 5 to a 6-year-old child who was buried between 500 and 1,000 years ago in Arizona’s Ventana Cave by the Hohokam people. The third mummy, of an even younger child, was buried roughly 750 years ago in southern Utah.

EUROPE, PORTUGAL, WORLD

16th-Century Shipwreck’s Cargo of Elephant Ivory Analyzed

16th-Century Shipwreck’s Cargo of Elephant Ivory Analyzed

BBC News reports that an international team of researchers led by Alida de Flamingh of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was able to reconstruct complete mitochondrial genomes for 17 distinct elephant herds with samples taken from 100 tusks recovered from the Bom Jesus, a Portuguese trading vessel that sank in 1533 while on a voyage to India.

16th-Century Shipwreck’s Cargo of Elephant Ivory Analyzed
A hundred complete tusks were among the cargo

It was found by chance in 2008 in a coastal diamond mine, making it the oldest known shipwreck in southern Africa. 

The ivory in the cargo hold was just part of a vast haul of precious cargo, including copper ingots and gold and silver coins. Archaeologists have also found personal effects and navigation equipment amid the remains of the ship.

“There are dinner plates, cutlery, and trinket boxes, as well as all the copper ingots, coins, and ivory in the cargo,” explained Ashley Coutu, an archaeologist from the University of Oxford, who specializes in genetic and chemical analysis of artifacts.

“It is an incredible find, incredibly well preserved,” she told BBC News.

Every tusk is an elephant’s life story – a chemical fingerprint laid down throughout its life

That preservation meant that the international team of researchers – including experts from Namibia, the US, and the UK – could unpick exactly how many herds of elephants the tusks came from.

The team examined something called mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria are the power stations of every cell, converting food into fuel. And crucially for this study, the genetic blueprint that makes mitochondria are passed down from mother to offspring.

This makes it a particularly revealing piece of code for elephants.

“Elephants live in female-led family groups, and they tend to stay in the same geographic area throughout their lives,” explained Alida de Flamingh from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the study. “We were able to reconstruct complete mitochondrial genomes from these really old samples.”

Those completed pieces of genetic code showed that the tusks on this single trading vessel came from 17 distinct elephant herds. The most up to date genetic information about the elephants surviving in that part of Africa today showed that only four of those could be found.

“That was quite shocking – that loss of diversity,” said Dr. Coutu. “Next we’d really like to fill in those gaps in a chronological way. We can look at where these pinch points are in history and create a timeline of exactly how and when the huge trade in ivory had an impact.”

“[What we found] definitely has conservation implications,” Dr de Flamingh added: “We know that a loss of genetic diversity is associated with increased extinction risk.”

Every tusk is an elephant’s life story. What the animals eat creates a fingerprint in the composition of the tusks as they grow – something that scientists can unpick using a technique called isotope analysis.

This essentially breaks down the chemical make-up of every tusk, and it suggested that these were forest elephants – living in mixed forest habitats.

That was a surprise because by this point in history the Portuguese had established trade with the Kongo Kingdom and communities along the Congo River. So the researchers expected that elephants would be from different regions, especially West and Central Africa.

Battling the ivory trade

The scientists also hope their detailed examination of this ancient ivory could help inform anti-poaching efforts today.

The scientists also hope their detailed examination of this ancient ivory could help inform anti-poaching efforts today. While recent analysis shows elephant poaching has declined slightly, conservationists say the animals are still being poached at unsustainable rates and the trade is a threat to their survival.

When large-scale confiscations of illegal ivory take place, people analyze the DNA to find out where the elephants were killed in Africa. “Our evidence provides a reference to compare that with, so its origin can be confirmed,” said Dr de Flamingh.

“And once you know where the ivory is from you can develop targeted anti-poaching strategies for those locations.”

Dr. Coutu added: “We’re really going to be able to use this historic data to answer modern conservation questions.”

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

1,000-year-old cross buried in Scottish field thought to have belonged to the king

1,000-year-old cross buried in Scottish field thought to have belonged to the king

Since painstaking restoration, a stunning Anglo-Saxon silver cross has arisen from under 1,000 years of encrusted dirt. Such is its quality that whoever commissioned this treasure may have been a high-standing cleric or even a king.

It was a sorry-looking object when first unearthed in 2014 from a ploughed field in western Scotland as part of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of rare and unique Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, acquired by the National Museums Scotland (NMS)

The tiniest glimpses of its gold-leaf decoration could be spotted through its grubby exterior, but its stunning, intricate design had been concealed until now. A supreme example of Anglo-Saxon metalwork has been revealed.

The equal-armed cross was created by a goldsmith of outstanding skill and artistry. Its four arms bear the symbols of the four evangelists to whom tradition attributed the gospels of the New Testament: Saint Matthew (man), Mark (lion), Luke (cow) and John (eagle).

Dr Martin Goldberg, the NMS principal curator of early medieval and Viking collections, recalled his “wonderment” after seeing the cross in a gleaming state.

He told the Observer: “It’s just spectacular. There really isn’t a parallel. That is partly because of the time period it comes from. We imagine that a lot of ecclesiastical treasures were robbed from monasteries – that’s what the historical record of the Viking age describes to us. This is one of the survivals. The quality of the workmanship is just incredible. It’s a real privilege to see this after 1,000 years.”

The Galloway Hoard was buried in the late 9th century in Dumfries and Galloway, where it was unearthed by a metal detectorist in 2014.

The cross was among more than 100 gold, silver and other items, including a beautiful gold bird-shaped pin and a silver-gilt vessel. Incredibly, textile in which the objects had been wrapped was among organic matter that also survived.

The Galloway Hoard, which includes more than 100 items, was acquired by National Museums Scotland
Right: A millennium’s worth of dirt has been removed from the Anglo-Saxon cross buried in the 9th century; Left: The cross before it was cleaned.

Goldberg said: “At the start of the 10th century, new kingdoms were emerging in response to Viking invasions. Alfred the Great’s dynasty was laying the foundations of medieval England, and Alba, the kingdom that became medieval Scotland, is first mentioned in historical sources.”

Galloway had been part of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, said Goldberg, and was called the Saxon coast in the Irish chronicles as late as the 10th century. But this area was to become the Lordship of Galloway, named from the Gall-Gaedil, people of Scandinavian descent who spoke Gaelic and dominated the Irish Sea zone during the Viking age.

“The mixed material of the Galloway Hoard exemplifies this dynamic political and cultural environment,” Goldberg added.

“The cleaning has revealed that the cross, made in the 9th century, [has] a late Anglo-Saxon style of decoration. This looks like the type of thing that would be commissioned at the highest levels of society. First sons were usually kings and lords, second sons would become high-ranking clerics. It’s likely to come from one of these aristocratic families.”

The pectoral cross has survived with its intricate spiral chain, from which it would have been suspended from the neck, displayed across the chest.

The chain shows that the cross was worn. Goldberg said: “You could almost imagine someone taking it off their neck and wrapping the chain around it to bury it in the ground. It has that kind of personal touch.”

Conservators carved a porcupine quill to create a tool that was sharp enough to remove the dirt, yet soft enough not to damage the metalwork.

Dr Leslie Webster, former keeper of Britain, Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum, said: “It is a unique survival of high-status Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical metalwork from a period when – in part, thanks to the Viking raids – so much has been lost.”

Why the hoard was buried remains a mystery. Goldberg said that the cross now raises many more questions and that research continues.

The exhibition, Galloway Hoard: Viking-age Treasure, will be at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Massive Underground City Guides Us Deep Down to Ancient Times

Massive Underground City Guides Us Deep Down to Ancient Times

Chicago, like a lot of other modern cities, has a hidden secret: It’s home to miles of passageways deep underground that allow commuters to get from one place to another without risking nasty weather.

Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Dallas all have their own networks of underground tunnels, as well. But there’s a place in Eastern Europe that puts those forgotten passages to shame. Welcome to Derinkuyu — the underground city.

Picture this. It’s 1963, and you’re on a construction crew renovating a home. You bring your sledgehammer down on a soft stone wall, and it all crumbles away, revealing a large, snaking passageway so long that you can’t see where it ends.

This is the true story of how the undercity at Derinkuyu was (re-)discovered. While those workers knew they’d found something special, they couldn’t know just how massive their discovery had been.

Stretching 250 feet (76 meters) underground with at least 18 distinct levels, Derinkuyu was a truly massive place to live. Yes, live. There was room for 20,000 people to stay here, complete with all of the necessities (and a few luxuries) — freshwater, stables, places of worship, and even wineries and oil presses.

It isn’t the only underground city in the area known as Cappadocia, but it’s the deepest one we know of, and for many years, it was believed to be the largest as well.

Derinkuyu and the other 40-ish underground cities nearby are made possible thanks to the prevalence of tuff in the area, a kind of volcanic rock that solidifies into something soft and crumbly.

That makes it relatively easy to carve enormous subterranean passages — but why would you want to? The answer lies in the cities’ origins.

History of Ancient Underground City

This underground city was found by Phrygians from 8th-7th BCE. From that period, the city has enjoyed a prosperous life. And the golden ages were experienced during the Byzantine period. Also, the city has remains of some chapels which were built after the people there followed Christianity during the Roman period.

This large amazing underground city has been connected with numerous tunnels. The whole structure is designed as a large network.

It is believed that these tunnels were added during the Byzantine and Arab wars. During 780-1180, people constructed an extensive tunnel network to connect all parts of the city and form an escape route.

From Highly Protected City to Popular Touristic Attraction

Derinkuyu underground city had everything for a society to survive. Although built underground, this city functioned just like a normal city on the surface.

This huge complex had communal rooms, stables as well as a wine cellar. Also, there were places for live stocks and clean water was obtained from wells.

Cappadocia is a region in central Anatolia, Turkey.

One of the reasons for this city to become this large was the geographical advantage. Easily carved volcanic stones in the Cappadocia region enabled this city to turn into a megacity of that period.

Ventilation was provided with 180-feet long shafts and 1000-pound round, stones that function as doors to protect the city from all types of attack. Currently, Derinkuyu and Cappadocia region is among the most popular touristic destinations in Turkey.

Although only 8 layers of this ancient underground city can be visited, it is worth to see how people of the past lived a secure life.

  • ventilation shaft and well.
Heavy disk-shaped door provided security during raids.
EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

An Astonishingly Small Stone Carving That Has the Power to Change Art History

An Astonishingly Small Stone Carving That Has the Power to Change Art History

A new discovery by researchers at the University of Cincinnati is upending the way we think about the development of Western Civilization. More than one year after discovering the 3,500-year-old tomb of a Bronze age warrior in Greece, an incredible piece of carved stone could rewrite art history.

Known as the Griffin Warrior tomb, the Greek government hailed it as “most important to have been discovered in 65 years.” Located in Pylos, Greece the tomb dates to about 1500 B.C., right around the time that the Mycenaeans overtook the culturally dominant Minoans, who were based on the island of Crete.

The tomb was filled with riches, but perhaps its most spectacular find took longer to emerge.

The Pylos Combat Agate is a miniature stone carved with a deft hand that shows incredible skill. It took conservationists more than a year to clean the limestone-encrusted seal to unearth the incredible imagery of a warrior in battle.

Etched on a piece of stone just over 1.4 inches (3.6 centimetres) long, some details are so small they require a microscope to view.

An Astonishingly Small Stone Carving That Has the Power to Change Art History
The Pylos Combat Agate, an intricately carved 3,500-year-old sealstone discovered in the tomb of a Greek warrior.

“What is fascinating is that the representation of the human body is at a level of detail and musculature that one doesn’t find again until the classical period of Greek art 1,000 years later,” shares Jack Davis, the University of Cincinnati’s chair in Greek archaeology and co-project director on the excavation. “It’s a spectacular find.”

Sharon Stocker, who directs the project with Davis, and is a senior research associate in the university’s Department of Classics, concurs.

“Looking at the image for the first time was a very moving experience, and it still is,” says Stocker. “It’s brought some people to tears.”

But just why is this miniature masterpiece such an important find? Scholars have commonly thought that the Mycaneans simply appropriated iconography from Minoan culture, but the Pylos Combat Agate, combined with other artefacts found in the tomb, point to a greater cultural exchange that previously believed.

And due to the rich anatomical details and refined skill of the seal, art historians must re-evaluate their timeline for how Western art developed.

Greek art is broken into a distinct timeline, with famous sculptures like the Nike of Samothrace coming during the 4th-century BC Hellenistic era, the apex Greek artistry.

Instead, the Bronze Age, during which the spoils found inside the Griffin Warrior tomb were produced, is known for much less refined artwork. But now, the seal could completely change how prehistoric art is viewed.

“It seems that the Minoans were producing art of the sort that no one ever imagined they were capable of producing,” shares Davis.

“It shows that their ability and interest in representational art, particularly movement and human anatomy, is beyond what it was imagined to be. Combined with the stylized features, that itself is just extraordinary.”

AUSTRALIA, WORLD

A 46,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Site Was Just Deliberately Destroyed in Australia

A 46,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Site Was Just Deliberately Destroyed in Australia

The mining company was permitted to blow Juukan Gorge Cave, which provided traditional owners with a 4000-year old genetic link. An extension of an iron ore mine destroyed a sacred site in Western Australia which has been continuously inhabited for 46,000 years and provides a 4,000-year-old genetic link to traditional owners today.

One of the oldest in the western Pilbara region, the cave-in Juukan Gorge in the Hammersley Ranges, about 60km from Mt Tom Price, is the only inland site in Australia to display evidence of sustained human occupancy since the last Ice Age. It, along with another sacred site, was blasted.

Under WA’s obsolete Aboriginal heritage rules, which were drafted in 1972 to benefit mining supporters, mining firm Rio Tinto obtained ministerial permission to destroy or damage the site in 2013.

A 46,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Site Was Just Deliberately Destroyed in Australia
This cave in the Juukan Gorge, dubbed Juukan 2, was destroyed in a mining blast on Sunday. Consent was given through outdated Aboriginal heritage laws drafted in 1972. Photograph: The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation.

One year after consent was granted, an archaeological dig intended to salvage whatever could be saved discovered the site was more than twice as old as previously thought and rich in artefacts, including sacred objects.

Most precious was a 4,000-year-old length of plaited human hair, woven together from strands from the heads of several different people, which DNA testing revealed were the direct ancestors of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura traditional owners living today.

But the outdated Aboriginal Heritage Act does not allow for a consent to be renegotiated on the basis of new information. So despite regular meetings with Rio Tinto, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Aboriginal Corporation were unable to stop the blast from going ahead.

“It’s one of the most sacred sites in the Pilbara region … we wanted to have that area protected,” PKKP director Burchell Hayes told Guardian Australia.

Burchell Hayes says his people are devastated the lessons from the site can never be passed onto future generations.

“It is precious to have something like that plaited hair, found on our country, and then have further testing link it back to the Kurrama people. It’s something to be proud of, but it’s also sad. Its resting place for 4,000 years is no longer there.”

Hayes said the site had been used as a campsite by Kurrama moving through the area, including in the memory of some elders.

“We want to do the same, we want to show the next generation,” he said. “Now, if this site has been destroyed, then we can tell them stories but we can’t show them photographs or take them out there to stand at the rock shelter and say: this is where your ancestors lived, starting 46,000 years ago.”

Rio Tinto was given permission to blast Juukan Gorge 1 and 2 under Section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act.

The Aboriginal Heritage Act has been up for review, in some form, since 2012. Draft legislation put forward by the former Liberal government in 2014 was rejected after even a National party MP argued it was unfair to traditional owners and did not allow for adequate consultation.

Rewriting the act was listed as a priority for Labor before their election win in 2017, and last month WA’s Aboriginal affairs minister Ben Wyatt pushed back the final consultation on his draft bill until later this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The new legislation will provide options to appeal or amend agreements to allow for the destruction of heritage sites, Wyatt said. He wasn’t aware of the risk to the Juukan site, or its destruction.

“It will provide for agreements between traditional owners and proponents to include a process to consider new information that may come to light, and allow the parties to be able to amend the agreements by mutual consent,” he said. “The legislation will also provide options for appeal should either party not be compliant with the agreement.”

In its submission to the legislative review, Rio Tinto said it was broadly supportive of the proposed reform but that consent orders granted under the current system should be carried over, and that rights of appeal should be fixed, not broad or subject to extensions, lest it “prolong approvals or appeals processes at a critical point in the project.”

A spokesman from Rio Tinto said the company had a relationship with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people dating back three decades, “and we have been working together in relation to the Juukan area over the past 17 years”.

“Rio Tinto has worked constructively together with the PKKP People on a range of heritage matters and has, where practicable, modified its operations to avoid heritage impacts and to protect places of cultural significance to the group,” the company said.

The mining company signed a native title agreement with the traditional owners in 2011, four years before their native title claim received formal assent by the federal court. They facilitated the salvage dig in 2014, which uncovered the true age of the site.

Archaeologist Dr Michael Slack, who led that dig, said it was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. An earlier 1-metre test dig, conducted in 2008, dated the site at about 20,000 years old, but the salvage expedition uncovered a “very significant site” with more than 7,000 artefacts collected, including grid stones that were 40,000 years old, thousands of bones from middens which showed changes in fauna as the climate changed, and sacred objects.

The flat floor of the cave allowed for a significant depth of soil and sand to build up, creating a layer almost two metres deep in parts. Most archaeological digs in the Pilbara hit the rock at 30cm.

Indigenous rock art in the Spear Valley region shows a turtle carved into a rock.

Most significantly, the archaeological records did not disappear during the last Ice Age. Most inland archaeological sites in Australia show that people moved away during the Ice Age between 23,000 and 19,000 years ago, as the country dried up and water sources dried up. Archaeological evidence from Juukan Gorge suggests it was occupied throughout.

“It was the sort of site you do not get very often, you could have worked there for years,” he said. “How significantly does something have to be, to be valued by wider society?” he said.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists believe they have found Cleopatra’s tomb

Archaeologists believe they have found Cleopatra’s tomb

One of history’s most famous love stories may finally be getting its ending — after more than 2,000 years. Archaeologists have teased a key breakthrough in finding Egyptian Queen Cleopatra’s final resting place — a hidden tomb where she is assumed to have been buried with ill-fated lover Mark Antony after their suicides.

The discovery was made during a “meticulous” dig in Taposiris Magna, a temple “honeycombed with hidden passages and tombs” on Egypt’s Nile delta, according to the Science Channel.

The scientists uncovered an “undisturbed tomb decorated in gold leaf” that a new documentary suggests “could be the answer to the 2,000-year-old mystery of Cleopatra’s final resting place” in 30 B.C.

Archaeologists digging at Taposiris Magna, where they believe the tomb of Cleopatra to be.

“Their findings revolutionize our understanding of who she was and how she lived,” claimed the channel of the findings to be revealed in a two-hour special, “Cleopatra: Sex, Lies, and Secrets,”

The show follows the team led by Dr. Kathleen Martinez, who describes herself as a “Dominican archaeologist in search of Cleopatra” and has teased numerous breakthroughs on social media.

Sally-Ann Ashton admires one of the statues of Cleopatra at the launch of a new exhibition at The British Museum in London.

Cleopatra was the last queen of Egypt — having been crowned at just 18 — and is one of history’s most famous female rulers.

Yet she is “synonymous with seduction, beauty, and scandal,” the Science Channel noted, calling her “an icon of popular culture and one of the most elusive yet significant female figures in history.”

As well as the history books, her story is the subject of one of William Shakespeare’s greatest works, “Antony and Cleopatra,” as well as one of Elizabeth Taylor’s most iconic big-screen performances, with 1963’s “Cleopatra,” the most expensive movie of its age.

Even before her tragic love-story with Antony, she had a string of historic flings — having married and had a son with Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, according to History.com.

After Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C., Cleopatra went back to Egypt but was summoned to meet Roman general Antony to explain any role she may have had in the assassination.

She supposedly arrived on a golden barge rowed by silver oars, made to look like the goddess Aphrodite as she sat beneath a gilded canopy fanned by staff dressed as cupid, according to folklore.

Antony was instantly seduced, leading to three children — and the pair’s ultimate downfall.

Antony had been forced to prove his loyalty to Caesar’s successor as Roman Emperor, Octavian, by marrying his half-sister, Octavia — but soon dumped her to return to Cleopatra in Egypt, History says.

It sparked a war, which Octavian’s forces easily won in the Battle of Actium.

Antony famously fell on his sword when told his lover had killed herself — dying just as news arrived that it was not true.

Roman troops soon captured Cleopatra, and Octavian wanted to keep her alive to display her as a prize during a victory parade, according to llis Roxburgh, the author of “Cleopatra vs. the Roman Empire.”

Refusing to be used, Cleopatra killed herself — and is widely assumed to have done so by letting a snake poison her.

Dead at 39, she is believed to have been buried with her lover — sparking the more than 2,000-year mystery over the exact location of their tomb.

All In One Magazine