EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Ottoman-Era Bath and Byzantine Doorway Found in Greece

Ottoman-Era Bath and Byzantine Doorway Found in Greece

According to a statement released by Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sports, restoration work and surveys at the site of the medieval castle of Mytilene, which is located on the island of Lesbos, revealed a sixteenth-century A.D.

A new gate to an ancient city was recently unearthed at Mytilene’s iconic castle on the Greek island of Lesvos.

The findings, which date from the 6th to 7th centuries AD, shed new light on life on the island of Lesvos, especially regarding the defence of the island in those times.

Pavlos Triantaphyllides, the head of the Ephorate, notes that the findings can be considered of special importance for the defence architecture of the Castle of Mytilene during early Byzantine history and of Mytilene as a whole.

Triantaphyllides probably says that it has now been established that the pre-Byzantine gate of the Castle is connected to the hitherto-unknown Byzantine settlement of Melanoudi, which was prominent in the area until its conquest by the Ottomans.

Entering the castle from Epano Skala, an Ottoman bath from the 16th century was found, which experts say is in “very good condition.” The bath was owned by Haireddin Pasha Barbarossa, who was originally from Mytilene.

The earliest bath ever found on Lesvos

This is the earliest bath that has ever been found on the island of Lesvos and it features vaulted areas of hot, lukewarm and cold baths with the necessary fire pits underneath, as shown by the short columns which supported the floor of the baths.

The area underneath recently-unearthed baths at Mytilene castle.

According to the Ephorate, it will be covered with a canopy and will eventually be open to the public at some point in the future. The archaeologists state that the most important discovery, however, lies beneath the foundations of the baths. The early Byzantine gate of the 7th century AD was located there, leading to Melanoudi, a well-known Byzantine town that we did not know the precise location of until today.

Gate leading to a new city underneath the castle

This is simply because the oldest medieval remains uncovered thus far until now had been those dating back to the 14th century. “While it had been considered that the lower part of the castle was wallless, the new excavation findings come to show us the walls of the lower castle,” explains Triantaphyllides.

“This gate is made of amazing marble from an ancient material, being recycled from previous use. It has a total height of 3.20 meters (10.5 feet), and a width of 2.05 meters (6.7 feet) and a depth of two meters (6.5 feet).

“A total of nine slabs of local grey-white marble were used for its construction, while cavities in the lintel indicate the existence of a wooden door, adapted with swivels,” the archaeologist notes.

“Its pilasters are decorated with ribbons and a convex wave, while the lintel has a convex cornice,” adds the Curator of Antiquities.

What was the town of Melanoudi?

According to Triantaphyllides, Melanoudi must have had around 1,000 inhabitants in its heyday. He states the medieval inhabitants of the city of Mytilene “had to contact from the northern port through the port that still exists today. If you remember, some remains of the Hellenistic wall are still preserved in the sea today, which seem to have been used during the Middle Ages.

“On the other side of the walls there were baths, there were houses,” he says.

“Certainly there are some Christian temples that we have not identified at the moment,” the archaeologist says. “For the early phase of the city in the 6th and 7th century the excavation research which we hope to continue in the next period of time with other funds will give us a lot of information.

“We are talking about the 7th-century Byzantine settlement that existed inside the castle and was by the sea.”

According to these recent findings, the Byzantine city was located down four meters from the current surface of the ground where people walk today inside the castle.

“It is very impressive as a find and unfortunately in Greece we do not know many similar examples with the early Byzantine fortifications because it is an extremely difficult period, this is the period of transition from paganism to Christianity where archaeological evidence is usually scarce,” notes Triantaphyllides.

Restoration ongoing in the area; bicycle trail proposed

In the lower castle area, a new bicycle path will be created as part of the co-financed European program of Sustainable Urban Regeneration. Under the auspices of the NSRF 2014-2020 of the North Aegean Region, a new traffic pattern will also be created for the area.

In a short time, the bicycle road that will go to the project will be completed by the municipality. Two Ottoman-era homes are already being restored; one of these will serve as a centre of information and documentation for the entire history of the island of Lesvos. The second house offer space for educational programs for children, who will be also able to explore the ancient and medieval-era ruins in special tours led by archaeologists.

“We will explain to the children how they were built, how the houses, the temples, the walls were built. And the children will be given a complete picture of what this medieval castle of Mytilene was like,” says Triantaphyllides.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Archaeologists Solve Mystery of 5,600-Year-Old Skull Found in Italian Cave

Archaeologists Solve Mystery of 5,600-Year-Old Skull Found in Italian Cave

A Stone Age woman’s skull took an unlikely trip after she died 5,600 years ago when mud and water washed it away from her gravesite and into the craggy rocks of a steep cave in what is now Italy, according to a recent analysis.

Archaeologist Lucia Castagna recovers the 5,600-year-old human skull at the top of a vertical shaft in the Marcel Loubens cave, in the Bologna area of northern Italy.

When archaeologists found the skull, its resting spot in the cave shaft was so hard to reach that only one archaeologist, using rock climbing equipment, could squeeze into the space to recover it. During later analysis, the researchers found that the skull was very scratched up; at first, they couldn’t make heads or tails of what had happened to the ancient woman. 

But, after determining which of the skull’s lesions were likely caused by humans and which were likely incurred as the skull tumbled against various rocks, the researchers came up with a possible scenario.

Once this woman died, people in her community likely dismembered her corpse — a funeral practice performed at other burials from this time period and region. After people separated the woman’s skull from the rest of her body, environmental forces swept it away into the cave, the researchers suggested. 

Archaeologists discovered the lone skull in 2015 in northern Italy’s Marcel Loubens cave. Caves are common sites for ancient burials, but archaeologists couldn’t find any other human remains there, even when they returned in 2017 with climbing equipment to retrieve the skull. 

A CT (computed tomography) scan and analysis of the skull itself revealed that the woman was between the ages of 24 and 35 when she died, while radiocarbon dating indicated that she lived between 3630 and 3380 B.C., during the New Stone Age, or Neolithic period. To put that into perspective, this woman lived just before Ötzi the Iceman, whose mummified remains date to 3300 B.C. and were also found in northern Italy.

What happened?

Several traumatic lesions on the woman’s skull helped the researchers piece together her strange story. One dent — which showed signs of healing, meaning it was incurred when she was alive — may have been made forcefully with tools, as there were parallel grooves below it, the researchers said.

Perhaps this woman had undergone cranial surgery, such as trepanation — a technique employed during the Neolithic and later in which holes are made in the skull, they said. A smudge of red ocher pigment found on this dent may have been placed there for therapeutic or symbolic reasons, the team noted.

Other lesions indicated that the soft tissues on her skull had been cut and scraped off after she died, as these lesions showed no signs of healing, the researchers said. This practice has been documented at other Neolithic burials in Italy; for instance, at Re Tiberio Cave in northern Italy, the long arm and leg bones of up to 17 Neolithic human skeletons were arranged in order, and their heads were missing — clues that these people’s body parts might have been separated and rearranged after death.

Other Neolithic remains found at nearby caves also show evidence of cranial scrape marks that were made after those people died, the researchers said.

Archaeologists Solve Mystery of 5,600-Year-Old Skull Found in Italian Cave
Some of the marks seen on the woman’s skull predated her death, while others were likely left by natural forces following her burial.

Life during the Neolithic was challenging, so it’s no surprise that the woman wasn’t in the best health. Tiny holes on top of her skull may be related to inflammation, possibly from chronic anaemia (iron or vitamin B12 deficiency), the researchers said.

The woman also had two dense, ivory-like spots on her skull, which were likely benign tumours. Even her tooth enamel was underdeveloped, suggesting that she had health problems when her permanent teeth were developing in early childhood. She also had several cavities, possibly due to a diet high in carbohydrates, the researchers said.

Rocky tumble

Other damage and encrusted sediment on the woman’s skull told another story — essentially, that natural forces moved the woman’s cranium after her burial. After the woman was laid to rest, the dismembered skull rolled away, probably with water and mud that was flowing downhill toward a sinkhole. 

“After a long and bumpy ride, [the skull] accidentally ended up in the cave,” the researchers said in a statement. Over time, the sinkhole’s geological activity created a cave, where the skull sat for 5,600 years until it was discovered by modern archaeologists.

The skull’s resting spot is “unusual,” but “the authors are able to provide a plausible scenario of how the skull ended up in this cave,” said Thomas Terberger, an archaeologist at the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage, in Hannover, Germany, who wasn’t involved in the study. But the origin of some of the skull’s lesions is still murky, he said.

“I have the feeling the authors themselves, who did a very good job, are not 100% sure about this,” Terberger told Live Science in an email. “It is not always easy to distinguish between striations (caused by transport in the sediment/rocky ground) and cut marks.”

Even though this skull represents just one individual, “case studies like this are important to show the huge variety of postmortem episodes that can actually happen to skeletal remains, initiated by natural or anthropogenic [human-caused] factors,” Christian Meyer, lead researcher at the OsteoArchaeological Research Center in Germany, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Live Science in an email.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Graves of nearly 600 cats and dogs in ancient Egypt may be the world’s oldest pet cemetery

Graves of nearly 600 cats and dogs in ancient Egypt may be the world’s oldest pet cemetery

A well-preserved burial ground in the researchers consider to be at the very origin of human burial customs has been found in Egypt the skeleton remains of over 600 cats, dogs, monkeys were found carefully laid in individual graves in Berenike, a remote seaport on the western coast of the Red Sea.

Some of the animals were still wearing collars and other adornments, and others showed evidence of illnesses indicating they had been cared for by humans.

But the lack of mummification or sacrifice at the 2,000-year-old site suggests these were companion animals, not used in rituals or venerated as gods.

The remains of some 588 cats, dogs and monkeys were found in a site in the ancient Egyptian port of Berenike in what archaeologists believe may be the oldest known pet cemetery, Pictured: A cat skeleton from Berenice wearing a bronze collar

Berenike was founded in 275 BC by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who named it after his mother, Berenice I of Egypt. It was a bustling Roman port, and excavations have uncovered ceramics, spices, fabrics and other goods from as far away as India, as well as luxury items from across the empire.

Berenike was also a way station for ‘war elephants’ from Africa that would be sent out to fight in various battles. Archaeozoologist Marta Osypinska and her archaeologist husband, Piotr, originally discovered the cemetery site in 2011 while excavating a Roman trash dump on the edge of town.

Graves of nearly 600 cats and dogs in ancient Egypt may be the world’s oldest pet cemetery
A number of the dogs found on the site had medical issues that they couldn’t have survived without a human caregiver. Many, like this dog, were buried under pottery ‘which formed a kind of sarcophagus’

In 2017, they unearthed the remains of about 100 animals, mostly cats, and began to form a picture of what the area was used for. Other experts still believed they may have simply been discarded trash.

It wasn’t uncommon to bury pets in ancient Egypt but usually, they’d be interred with their owners, not placed in a dedicated space.

‘At first, some very experienced archaeologists discouraged me from this research,’ Osypinska told Science. They insisted there was little to learn about Berenike culture from studying pets.

‘I hope the results of our studies prove that it’s worth it,’ she told the magazine.

Marta and Piotr Osypinska first unearthed the site in 2011 but didn’t immediately determine its purpose as a pet cemetery. Even after more than 100 animal remains were discovered there, experts discouraged their research

According to her research, published in the journal World Archaeology, the ‘pet cemetery’ at Berenice functioned for about a hundred years, from the mid-first century to the mid-second century. In all, the team has found 585 animals to date, some of which are not native to Africa.

The vast majority — more than 90 per cent — were cats, though there were also dogs, baboons, and two species of macaques native to the Indian subcontinent.

Of the dogs, most were light-coloured Spitz types, though there were also toy dogs and larger canines more like mastiffs. Many of the cats wore metal collars or necklaces threaded with ostrich-shell beads. Osypinska told Science many of the animals were covered with textiles or pottery, ‘which formed a kind of sarcophagus.’

The animals were not haphazardly discarded, but carefully laid in individual pits. One feline was placed atop the wing of a large bird, the magazine reported.

Consulting with a veterinarian, Osypinska’s team was able to determine several of the animals had illnesses that would have killed them without human caregivers.

The remains of a dog that suffered from bone cancer were found in a mat of palm leaves covered with an amphora, according to Archaeology News Network.

Its belly still contained remains of fish and goat meat, its final meal. Other canines were missing most of their teeth, had gum disease or showed signs of joint degeneration.

‘We have individuals who have very limited mobility,’ Osypinska said. ‘Such animals had to be fed to survive, sometimes with special foods in the case of the almost-toothless animals.’

The kind of devotion required to nurse an old pet reveals the people of Berenice had strong emotional ties with domesticated animals, according to the report.

Archaeologists have uncovered mass animal graves in Egypt before, but almost always the creatures were either sacrificed or venerated, not treated as pets. Dozens of mummified cats were found in 2018 on the edge of the King Userkaf pyramid complex at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo.

Several years earlier a labyrinth of sacred tunnels was uncovered in the same region, packed with the mummified remains of up to eight million dogs, some of which was just hours old when they were sacrificed.

Other canines were treated as living representatives of the dog-headed god Anubis, living out their lives in the nearby temple before being preserved and laid to rest in the network of tunnels. The people of Berenike treated these animals as loving companions, Osypinska insists, ‘They weren’t doing it for the gods or for any utilitarian benefit.’

GUATEMALA, WORLD

One of the Largest Pyramids on Earth is Hidden Beneath the Forest

One of the Largest Pyramids on Earth is Hidden Beneath the Forest

A group of explorers set on solving the mystery of a long lost pyramid hidden deep in the Guatemala jungle rumoured to be larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza, received the treat of their lives.

El Mirador is a pre-Columbian Mayan settlement, located to the north of El Peten in Guatemala, first photographed from the air in 1930, but its remote location meant further exploration was limited. In 2003, Richard D. Hansen, an archaeologist from Idaho State University, initiated a major investigation and, although his team discovered that the area contained striking examples of the Preclassic Maya civilisation, its location prevented extensive documentation. However, 16 years on, digital media company Yes Theory have changed that, uncovering two large pyramids in the complex.

Thomas Brag, Ammar Kandil and Matt Dajer trekked for four days on foot through the Guatemala jungle, alongside seven other creators to fulfil Mr Kandil’s dream to climb a pyramid.

Documenting every step of their experience, they released “Finding the Lost Largest Pyramid in the World” on their website and later on YouTube on September 15, 2019.

First uncovering the colossal structure, Mr Dajer exclaimed: “We’ve just arrived at the very, very bottom base of a pyramid.

“You would never guess just walking through here, but this entire thing is limestone underneath and this is part of the pyramid.

The pyramid was hiding in the Guatemala jungle

“You can’t even grasp fully in your mind how huge this must have looked when it was for real.” The group then began making the monumental 50-minute-long journey up thousands of steps.

Mr Brag told the camera: “So these are the steps to the second platform and this entire thing that we are on is a man built.

“So once they started digging up the soil from what’s been layered up on top of this over thousands of years, they’re actually discovering the giant construction and the insane labour that it was to build this.

“This is just the steps up, I can’t even see the top from here.

“This is way bigger than I expected, it is insane.”

Eventually, they made it to the top, and the whole crew were left taken back.

The pyramid can be seen pocking out the jungle

Drone footage shows the pyramid-like never seen before.

An emotional Mr Kandil reflected during the film: “This is all to do with a dream I had.

“Everything about Yes Theory is saying ‘yes’ to those dreams that you think are so far-fetched.

“It’s being constantly in the pursuit to go after those dreams, to go after the things that matter the most to you in life.

“As you’re in the pursuit to do something you love and to do something that you dream of, you never who that inspires or what that ends up contributing to your life.

“Sometimes we end up achieving the dreams we never even knew we had.”

There are roughly 35 “triadic” structures in El Mirador, consisting of large artificial platforms topped with a set of three summit pyramids.  The most notable of such structures are the two huge complexes explored in the documentary, one is nicknamed “El Tigre”, with a height of 55 metres, while the other is called “La Danta”.

The La Danta temple measures approximately 72 metres (236 ft) tall from the forest floor and considering its total volume (2,800,000 cubic meters) is considered the largest in the world by many archaeologists.

For comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza is 139 metres tall, but 2,583,283 cubic metres in volume. That has not stopped one of the Seven Wonder of the Ancient World from making headlines too, though.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Archaeologists Find A 2,500-Year-Old Grave In Siberia That Contains An Ancient Warrior Couple

Archaeologists Find A 2,500-Year-Old Grave In Siberia That Contains An Ancient Warrior Couple

On an investigation to a 2,500-year-year-old tomb of an ancient warrior and princess was discovered in Siberia. The pair are believed to have died in their 30s and were buried with a baby and an ‘elderly’ servant woman, archaeologists say.

The woman may have been 60 years of age when she died, as she died and was entombed in a crumpled position under the feet of the couple, who may have been spouses.

Remains of the child were scattered throughout the grave, which archaeologists say probably happened when rodents ate the flesh of the deceased. 

Experts unearthing the find in southern Siberia say the four people probably succumbed simultaneously to the same infection, and the servant was buried alongside them to look after the family in the afterlife. 

The warrior couple, the woman specifically, maybe proof of the lost Scythian civilisation, which inhabited the region of modern-day Russia until 2,200 years ago.

The pair are believed to have died in their 30s and were buried with a baby and an ‘elderly’ servant woman, archaeologists say. The elderly woman was likely in her 60s when she died. The bones of the child were scattered throughout the grave, probably by rodents

The fighter woman in the grave was buried with the same weaponry as the man, the researchers say, which is unusual.  In surviving records and other graves from the same time frame and location, female warriors were buried with a bow and arrows, long-range weapons, 

But the woman in the newly unearthed grave was armed with a long-handled weapon, either a hatchet or an axe, and a short sword. These weapons are best suited for hand-to-hand combat and a bloody melee and this difference is indicative of the Scythian culture, researchers say.   

Dr Oleg Mitko, head of Archeology at Novosibirsk State University, said: ‘We have an impressive set of weaponry. 

‘We found close fight weapons in a female grave, which is not so typical. The woman had a battle-axe.. so she was a part of warrior strata.’

Senior researcher Yuri Teterin said: ‘The man had two axes and two bronze daggers.

‘It is a brilliant burial in that there is an authentic bronze weaponry.’ The man also had a bronze mirror, the researchers say.

Wooden handles of the weapons have no survived millennia in soil, but the metallic elements have. The couple, the baby and servant, are from the Tagar culture, part of the Scythian civilisation, researchers believe. 

In contrast to other female warriors from ancient Siberia, the female in the grave was armed in with a long-handled weapon, either a hatchet or an axe, and a short sword. These weapons are best suited for hand-to-hand combat
The couple, the baby and servant, are from the Tagar culture, part of the Scythian civilisation, researchers believe

The older woman had two broken teeth and her possessions were only a broken comb and a small ceramic vessel, indicating she had little personal wealth.  

Larger ceramic vessels – believed to have been full of food – were also discovered which were filled with mutton and beef, researchers say. 

When they were buried 2,500 years ago, the grave goods and food would have been buried alongside the people because it was believed it helped people in the afterlife.

Scientists say there is no immediate evidence of battle wounds to suggest a cause of death, but further research will be undertaken.

One theory is that they succumbed to an infection at the same time, leading to them all being buried simultaneously. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus left a detailed account of the Scythians and their young women warriors.

But physician Hippocrates added that a young woman would cease her role as a fighter after ‘she takes to herself a husband’.

‘They do not lay aside their virginity until they have killed three of their enemies, and they do not marry before they have performed the traditional sacred rites.’

‘Yet in this case, the woman warrior appears part of a family unit.

Archaeologist Anatoly Vybornov said: ‘Both male and women took part in hostilities. Violence was an acceptable and legal way to solve the problems then.’ 

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

50 Million Year Old Fossil Identified as Relative of Ostriches

50 Million Year Old Fossil Identified as Relative of Ostriches

The bird fossils were found more than a decade ago, completely intact with bones, feathers, and soft tissues in a former lake bed in Wyoming. Nesbitt cannot hide a grin as he calls the fossil a once-in-a-lifetime discovery for palaeontologists.

“This is among one of the earliest well-represented bird species after the age of large dinosaurs,” said Nesbitt, an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences.

“You can definitely appreciate how complete these fossils are,” added Nesbitt of the remains, the focus of a research paper co-authored by Nesbitt and newly published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.

Some of the remains are now on display as part of the exhibit “Dinosaurs Among Us” at the New York-based history museum. The fossils Other specimens used in the study are kept by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and the Wyoming Geological Survey.

The new species is named Calciavis grandei — with “calci” meaning “hard/stone,” and “avis” from the Latin for the bird, and “grandei” in honour of famed palaeontologist Lance Grande who has studied the fossil fish from the same ancient North American lake for decades.

The fossils of Calciavis found in the US shows us that the flightless bird group that includes Ostrich of today had a much wider distribution and longer evolutionary history in North America.

The bird is believed to be roughly the size of a chicken, and similar to chickens, were mostly ground-dwelling, only flying in short bursts to escape predators.

Nesbitt began studying the fossil in 2009 whilst a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, under Professor Julia Clarke, whom Nesbitt considers an important mentor. Clarke co-authored the paper with Nesbitt, who joined Virginia Tech’s faculty in 2014.

The work was funded by two grants from the National Science Foundation’s Earth Sciences Directorate.

Two fossils of Calciavis dating from the Eocene epoch — roughly between 56 million and 30 million years ago — were found by fossil diggers within the Green River Formation in Wyoming, a hotbed for extinct fish. “These are spectacularly preserved fossils, one is a nearly complete skeleton covered with feather remains, the others are nearly as complete and some show soft tissue remains,” said Nesbitt.

“Fossil birds are rare,” added Nesbitt, adding that as bird bones are hollow, they are far more fragile than most mammal bones, and more likely to be crushed during fossilization. One of the fossilized birds in this rare case apparently was covered in mud soon after death.

The former lake in which the fossil was found is best known for producing scores of complete fish skeleton fossils, but other fossils such as other birds, plants, crocodilians, turtles, bats, and mammals from an ecosystem roughly 50 million years old.

Included in the extinct group of early Palaeognathae birds, the Lithornithidae, Nesbitt and Clarke call the bird a close relative of living ostriches, kiwis, and tinamous now living in the southern continents. After tropical forests disappeared in North America, Calciavis and other more tropical birds went extinct, said, Nesbitt and Clarke.

“Relationships among species in this lineage of birds have been extremely contentious,” said Clarke. “We hope the detailed new anatomical data we provide will aid in finding a resolution to this ongoing debate.”

“The new bird shows us that the bird group that includes the largest flightless birds of today had a much wider distribution and longer evolutionary history in North America,” Nesbitt said. “Back when Calciavis was alive, it lived in a tropical environment that was rich with tropical life and this is in stark contrast to the high-desert environment in Wyoming today.”

50 Million Year Old Fossil Identified as Relative of Ostriches

The Calciavis skeleton will be important to interpreting new bird fossils and other fossils from the Eocene epoch that were collected decades ago. “This spectacular specimen could be a ‘keystone’ that helps interpret much of the sparse fossil of birds that once lived in North America millions of years ago,” said Nesbitt.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

CT Scans Suggest Egyptian Pharaoh Was Brutally Executed on the Battlefield

CT Scans Suggest Egyptian Pharaoh Was Brutally Executed on the Battlefield

Seqenenre Taa II, the Egyptian pharaoh, may have died on the battlefield, surrounded by attackers carrying daggers, swords, and spears. According to a recent computed tomography (CT) scan of the pharaoh’s damaged mummy, which revealed new facial wounds that ancient embalmers tried to disguise.

A CT scan of the skull of Seqenenre Taa II, whose facial wounds suggest a violent battlefiend death

A broad cut in the pharaoh’s forehead, wounds across his eyes and cheeks, and a knife wound at the base of the skull that may have penetrated the brain stem were all visible. The attackers, it seems, surrounded the defeated ruler on every side.

“This suggests that Seqenenre was really on the front line with his soldiers, risking his life to liberate Egypt,” study lead author Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at Cairo University, said in a statement.

The mummy of Seqenenre Taa II was first discovered in the 1880s. Even then, archaeologists noticed several prominent wounds on the pharaoh’s face.

A war over hippos

Seqenenre Taa II (also spelled Seqenenre Tao II) was the ruler of southern Egypt between about 1558 B.C. and 1553 B.C., during the occupation of Egypt by the Hyksos, a people who probably came from the Levant.

The Hyksos controlled northern Egypt and required tribute from the southern part of the kingdom.

According to fragmentary papyrus accounts, Seqenenre Taa II revolted against the occupiers after receiving a complaint from the Hyksos king that the noise of hippos in a sacred pool in Thebes was disturbing his sleep.

The king lived in the capital city of Avaris, 400 miles (644 kilometres) away. On this trumped-up charge, the Hyksos king demanded the sacred pool be destroyed — a grave insult to Seqenenre Taa II. 

This insult may have been the prelude to war. Text on a carved rock slab found in Thebes recounts that Seqenenre Taa II’s son and immediate successor, Kamose, died in battle against the Hyksos. 

No one knew what had happened to the pharaoh, even after his mummy was discovered in 1886. Archaeologists noticed wounds on the skull and speculated that he’d been killed in battle or perhaps murdered in a palace coup. The 19th-century archaeologists who found the mummy reported a foul smell when they unwrapped it, leading them to suspect that the mummy had been hastily embalmed on the battlefield. 

The new study uses X-rays from multiple angles to build a 3D image of the pharaoh’s mummy. The pharaoh’s remains are in poor condition, with bones disarticulated and the head detached from the rest of the body. 

Violent death 

Nevertheless, the wounds on the skull tell the story of brutal death. The pharaoh had a 2.75-inch-long (7  centimeters) cut across his forehead, which would have been delivered from an axe or sword stroke from above. This wound alone could have been fatal. Another potentially fatal slice above the pharaoh’s right eye was 1.25 inches (3.2 cm) long and possibly made by an axe. More cuts on the nose, right eye and right cheek came from the right and from above and may have been delivered with an axe handle or blunt staff, the researchers said. 

Meanwhile, someone in front of the king swung a sword or an axe at the pharaoh’s left cheek, leaving another deep slice. From the left, a weapon — probably a spear — penetrated the base of his skull, leaving a 1.4-inch-long (3.5 cm) wound.  

Early archaeologists had previously reported many of these wounds, but Saleem and her colleague, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, discovered a new set of skull fractures covered by embalming material. Concentrated on the right side of the skull, the damage seems to have been caused by a dagger and a heavy, blunt object, perhaps an axe handle. 

The mummy’s hands were flexed and clenched, but there were no defensive injuries on his forearms, leading the researchers to suggest that perhaps Seqenenre Taa II’s hands were bound when he died. He may have been captured on the battlefield and executed by multiple attackers, Saleem said in the statement. 

Radiologist Sahar Saleem stands with the mummy of Seqenenre Taa II during CT scanning.

Although researchers have discovered pharaoh mummies with violent wounds before, there had been no evidence of pharaoh battlefield deaths until now, Saleem told Live Science. For example, Ramesses III had his throat cut in a palace coup, she said. Historical accounts tell of Ramesses II and Thutmose III taking part in the battle, but there is no evidence of injuries on their mummies. The mummy of an unidentified nobleman had an arrow embedded in its chest, Saleem said, which may have occurred in battle. 

The fact that embalmers tried to patch up Seqenenre Taa II’s skull wounds suggests that he wasn’t hastily embalmed, the researchers wrote in their new study, in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.

The pharaoh’s desiccated brain was also stuck to the left side of his skull, suggesting that someone laid him on his side after his death, either at the place where he fell or while his body was being transported for embalming. 

Seqenenre Taa II may have lost his life in battle, but his successors eventually won the war. After Kamose died, Seqenenre Taa II’s consort, Ahhotep I, likely acted as regent, continuing the rebellion against the Hyskos. When Seqenenre Taa II and Ahhotep I’s son Ahmose I came of age, he inherited the throne and finally pushed out the foreign occupiers. Ahmose I would unify Egypt and launch the New Kingdom, the period of ancient Egypt’s peak power between the 16th and 11th centuries B.C. 

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

New technique reveals hidden detail in an ancient Etruscan painting

New technique reveals hidden detail in an ancient Etruscan painting

Multi-illumination hyperspectral extraction (MHX) has been used to reveal previously unseen details in 2,500-year-old Etruscan tomb paintings, according to a Live Science report.

For instance, they found new details in a painting from the “Tomb of the Monkey” and scenes of an underworld in another work of art.

The Etruscans created detailed paintings, but the passage of time has meant that many of them are now only partly visible and that much of their colour has been lost. 

New technique reveals hidden detail in an ancient Etruscan painting
Using a new technique to restore this Etruscan painting (left) from the 2,500-year-old “Tomb of the Monkey,” researchers revealed what it really looked like so long ago (right).

“A major issue is the significant loss of information on the polychromy [colours] of the preserved paintings, with special regard to some specific colours owing to their physical-chemical composition,” Gloria Adinolfi, a researcher at Pegaso Srl Archeologia Arte Archeometria (a research institute), said in a presentation given Jan. 8 at the virtual joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies. 

The fact that some colours survive the passage of time better than others can give a distorted view of what ancient paintings looked like at the time they were painted, Adinolfi said. For example, some shades of green tend not to survive well, whereas red often does, she said.

“Red oaks usually seem to be more resistant so that sometimes reds are dominant and alter the correct perception of the original polychromy of the pictorial decoration,” Adinolfi said. 

Revealing ancient paintings

To reveal the paintings, the scientists used a technique called multi-illumination hyperspectral extraction (MHX), which involves taking dozens of images in the visible, infrared and ultraviolet bands of light and processing them using statistical algorithms developed at the National Research Council of Italy in Pisa, said team member Vincenzo Palleschi, a senior researcher at the research council. 

The technique can detect Egyptian blue, a colour developed in ancient Egypt that “has a very specific response in a single spectral band,” Palleschi said. The team also analyzed the residual remains of other remaining colours to help determine what colours were in the painting. 

By combining the MHX and colour analyses, the team revealed vanished scenes from ancient Etruscan paintings.

The researchers unveiled several examples during the presentation, including details of paintings depicting the Etruscan underworld showing rocks, trees and water. 

In the Tomb of the Monkey, so named because a painting in the tomb shows a monkey on a tree, the researchers uncovered details of a painting depicting a person.

To the naked eye, the painting looks like a red blur, but after the MHX and colour analyses were complete, the painting clearly showed a person carrying an object and details of their hair and face.

The tomb was discovered in the 19th century but now, with the new technology, the painting has become much more visible. 

The team’s research is ongoing, and more paintings may be revealed in the future. 

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