ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site

Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site

New items discovered near the proposed road tunnel underneath Stonehenge could shed light on the makers of the famous stone circle. Early discoveries include various graves dating back to the Bronze Age as well as two burial pits of Beaker people, who arrived in Britain around 4,500 years ago after Stonehenge was erected in the late Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago. 

The findings have thus far not provided any insight into who may have built Stonehenge, or how they may have done it, but researchers believe ongoing excavations could help unpick some of the mystery surrounding the monument.  Small finds uncovered at the site pertain mostly to everyday life and allow experts to build a clearer image of life pre-and post-erection of Stonehenge, which could help inform future studies and theories about its origin. 

Wessex Archaeology is leading hundreds of trial digs around the site to ensure the construction work, due to start in 2023, does not destroy any archaeological items. 

Early discoveries include various graves dating back to the Bronze Age as well as two burial pits of Beaker people (pictured), who arrived in Britain around 6,500 years ago, long before Stonehenge was erected in the late Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago
Map showing archaeological investigations along the proposed route of the A303 at Stonehenge

‘We’ve found a lot – evidence about the people who lived in this landscape over millennia, traces of people’s everyday lives and deaths, intimate things,’ Matt Leivers, A303 Stonehenge consultant archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology told The Guardian.

Every detail lets us work out what was happening in that landscape before during and after the building of Stonehenge. Every piece brings that picture into a little more focus. Objects from the Neolithic period were also found scattered around the site, including chunks of pottery, flint, and red deer antlers.  It is possible these items were left by the same people who built Stonehenge, but the archaeologists are currently unavailable to prove this. 

One discovery of note is a cylindrical piece of shale that was found in a 4,000-year-old Beaker burial. It has been described by archaeologists as ‘an oddity’ and unique.  The item is thought to have sat atop a staff or mace and was inside the grave of an adult who was also interred in a crouched position with a small pot and a copper awl.

A cylindrical shale object from a Beaker burial

Nearby to this pit was the burial site of a young child from the same period of time.   All that remains of the youngster are the inner ear bones and the baby was buried in a plain pot, which was likely a grave good for the deceased.  This bland Beaker pot is unusual for the culture, which is known for its ornate items. The simplicity likely reflects the age of the person who was buried there, the experts believe. 

The Beaker sites were found near the Western portal of the proposed tunnel, which sits south of the Stonehenge visitor center.  Even further south the team of archaeologists discovered an unusual arrangement of C-shaped ditches, and their use remains unknown. 

To the south of the Stonehenge visitor centre the team of archaeologists discovered an unusual arrangement of C-shaped ditches, and their use remains unknown. ‘It is a strange pattern of ditches,’ Matt Leivers, A303 Stonehenge consultant archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology told The Guardian . ‘It’s difficult to say what it was, but we know how old it is because we found a near-complete bronze age pot (pictured) in one of the ditches’

It is a strange pattern of ditches,’ Mr Leivers told The Guardian.  It’s difficult to say what it was, but we know how old it is because we found a near-complete bronze age pot in one of the ditches. The excavation also revealed large amounts of burnt flint in the ditches, which could indicate an industrial purpose. Mr. Leivers says this could be related to metal, leatherworking, pottery, or crops. 

Digs at the earmarked location for the Eastern portal of the tunnel have revealed fewer items, but they themselves have intrigued archaeologists.  One dig found evidence of debnitage, the waste material produced when making flint tools. Ditches in the area have also been found which date to the Iron Age and may be connected to the nearby Vespasian’s Camp, a hillfort located to the south.  

All items unearthed so far are being stored temporarily in nearby Salisbury and will eventually go on display at the city’s museum.  The controversial £1.7billion tunnel project is designed to divert traffic away from the iconic site by removing the current stretch of the A303 which passes within a few hundred yards of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Traffic will be sent underground and into the new dual-carriageway tunnel network, which will be 164ft further away from the site than the current road, in a bid to ease congestion around the landmark. 

The current road will become a public footpath.  Environmentalists, archaeologists, and druids have been outraged at the plans, which were first unveiled in 2017, and a legal battle was mounted last year.   

Highways England says its plan for the dual carriageway tunnel, located 164ft further away from Stonehenge compared to the existing A303 route, will remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.

The area is often severely congested on the single carriageway stretch near the stones, particularly on Bank Holiday weekends. But some environmentalists and archaeologists have voiced their opposition to the plan due to its potential impact on the area.

Modern-day druids, who each year celebrate the winter and summer solstices at Stonehenge, have also hit out at the plans. As a result, huge amounts of archaeological preparation is being conducted by Wessex, renowned leaders and experts in commercial excavations, 

They have recently revealed the ‘Hampton Court of Warwickshire’ as well as a 19th-century Victorian bathhouse in Bath. The experts drafted in specialists to hand dig and sift through more than 2,000 test pits and trenches. Next, the company intends to bring in 150 archaeologists to clear a larger swath of the land later this year. 

Construction work on the tunnel is expected to start in 2023, and Andy Crockett, A303 project director for Wessex Archaeology, acknowledges it is impossible to mitigate all risk to an area’s archaeology when road projects are involved. 

Highways England says the unprecedented amount of surveying done on the area is due to the significance of the Stonehenge site. David Bullock, A303 project manager for Highways England, told The Guardian: ‘There has been a huge amount of investigations so that this route can be threaded through so as to disturb as little as possible.’   

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Painted Terracotta Figurines Discovered in Turkey

Painted Terracotta Figurines Discovered in Turkey

Dozens of terracotta figurines that are over 2,000 years old have been found by archaeologists, including ones that represent gods, goddesses, men, women, cavalry, and animals. In the ancient city of Myra, in what is now modern-day Demre in Turkey, some of the figurines still had drawings on them and some had inscriptions, and both opened a window into life.

Some of the figurines didn’t have bodies, suggesting there were other terracottas to be found in the area.

This collection of figurines, “gives us rich clues about what existed in the mysterious Myra under a thick silt layer in the first and second centuries B.C.,” said Nevzat Çevik, a professor of archaeology at Akdeniz University in Turkey who led the excavation.

Myra is “one of the most important ancient settlements in Lycia,” an important maritime region along the Mediterranean Sea.

Myra’s port was once one of the largest harbors in the ancient Mediterranean; it is famous for its rock-cut tombs jutting from the hills, the church of Saint Nicholas, who was Myra’s bishop in the fourth century, and its 11,000-seat Roman-era theater.

Çevik and his team were excavating parts of this theater between June and October 2020 when they unearthed a second, smaller theater below the Roman remains.

The older structure dates back to the Hellenistic period, from 323 B.C. when Alexander the Great died to the beginning of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C.  They expected to find the Hellenistic theater, but the terracotta figurines scattered in it were “an unexpected big surprise,” Çevik told Live Science.

“It is as if the people of ancient Myra were resurrected and ran through the time tunnel all together and came to our day,” Çevik remembers telling his team when they found the figurines. 

The figurines were discovered in a Hellenistic theater buried beneath the famous ancient Myra theatre in southwestern Turkey.
Painted Terracotta Figurines Discovered in Turkey

The figurines, which are 2,100 to 2,200 years old included mortal men and women as well as divine figures such as Artemis, Heracles, Aphrodite, Leto, and Apollo; they also included figurines depicting a woman and a child, a boy with a fruit, a horseman and a woman carrying hydria (an ancient Greek water vessel).

Because of the “collective coexistence” of the figurines and the fact that the collection included divine figurines, votive plates, and incense containers, the researchers think that the figurines may have been brought in from a cult area and thrown here.

The collection gives “important clues about the Hellenistic period of Myra and Lycia,” he said.

Some of the statues had partially preserved paint on them. Red, blue and pink were used “intensely in different shades” in the clothes of the figurines, he said.

The inscriptions on the backs of some of the figurines could be the name of a master or workshop. The fact that the team discovered more than 50 terracotta heads that are missing their bodies suggests there are more figurines in the area to be found. 

The team also discovered a variety of ceramic, bronze, lead, and silver objects around the terracottas. They plan to continue excavating the area this year.

In the meantime, the excavation team is working to preserve, repair, and assemble the hundreds of small pieces that make up the terracotta collection. They plan to publish their findings and display the terracottas at the Andriake Lycian Civilizations Museum in Antalya, Turkey.

The excavations were led on behalf of Akdeniz University and Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Researchers Find 320 Million-Year-Old Plant Root Stem Cells

Researchers Find 320 Million-Year-Old Plant Root Stem Cells

It may look more like a shiny mosaic or a piece of jewellery, but the world’s oldest plant stem cells contain a 320 million-year-old fossil. And it gives us an entirely new understanding of the evolution of how plants grow.

The oldest fossilised remains of an actively growing root meristem, named Radix carbonica (Latin for coal root).
The oldest fossilised remains of an actively growing root meristem, named Radix carbonica (Latin for coal root).

The fossil shows that the way plants grew from their roots millions of years ago was totally different from the way many modern plants form. Stem cells, self-renewing cells responsible for the development of multicellular organisms, in groups called meristems, are present in plants at the tips of shoots and roots.

Scientists at Oxford University have discovered the oldest known population of plant root stem cells in a 320 million-year-old fossil. The researchers found the 320 million-year-old stem cells are different to all those living today, revealing a unique pattern of cell division that had remained unknown until now.

This means some of the mechanisms controlling root formation in plants and trees back then have now become extinct.

The fossils were the remains of the soil from the first giant tropical rainforests on Earth. These fossils made up the rooting structures of the plants growing in the Earth’s first global tropical wetland forests.

The cells, which gave rise to the roots of an ancient plant, were found in a fossilized root tip held in the Oxford University Herbaria – a preserved selection of plants kept for scientists to study.

‘I was examining one of the fossilized soil slides held at the University Herbaria as part of my research into the rooting systems of ancient trees when I noticed a structure that looked like the living root tips we see in plants today,’  said Alexander Hetherington, from Oxford University, who made the discovery during the course of his research.

‘I began to realize that I was looking at a population of 320 million-year-old plant stem cells preserved as they were growing – and that it was the first time anything like this had ever been found.

Thin slice of 320-million-year old fossil coal ball.

‘It gives us a unique window into how roots developed hundreds of millions of years ago.’ This is the first time an actively growing fossilized root has been discovered.

The soil was preserved in the rock that formed in the Carboniferous swamps which gave rise to the coal sources spanning what is now Appalachia to central Europe.

This includes the coalfields in Wales, northern England, and Scotland. Because of this, Mr. Hetherington has named the stem-cell fossil Radix carbonica, which is Latin for ‘coal root’.

The forests had trees over 164 feet (50 meters) tall, and were in part responsible for one of the most dramatic climate change events in history.

When deep rooting systems evolved, this increased the rate of chemical weathering of silicate minerals in rocks – a chemical reaction that pulled carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. This led to the cooling of the Earth and one of the planet’s great ice ages.

Professor Liam Dolan, Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University and senior author of the paper, said ‘these fossils demonstrate how the roots of these ancient plants grew for the first time.

‘It is startling that something so small could have had such a dramatic effect on the Earth’s climate.

‘This discovery also shows the importance of collections such as the Oxford University Herbaria – they are so valuable, and we need to maintain them for future generations.’

AFRICA, WORLD

Humans Have Been Taking Out Insurance Policies for at Least 30,000 Years

Humans Have Been Taking Out Insurance Policies for at Least 30,000 Years

Archaeologists say—The same way we trade social media likes or friendship bracelets,  our ancestors swapped bits of ostrich eggshell jewellery 30,000 years ago. Items—shell fragments with holes bored in—would have served as a symbol of the interpersonal links made up of ancient social networks.

Ostrich eggshell beads have been used to cement relationships in Africa for more than 30,000 years

Experts researching beads discovered in the African country of Lesotho have shown that the tradition seen in modern hunter-gatherers had a longer history than believed.

Analysis of elements within the beads has revealed that they were passed from person to person, travelling as far as 621 miles from where they were made.

‘Ostrich eggshell beads and the jewellery made from them basically acted like Stone Age versions of Facebook or Twitter “likes”,’ said archaeologist Brian Stewart of the University of Michigan.

These tokens, he added, would have ‘simultaneously affirmed connections to exchange partners while alerting others to the status of those relationships.’

The beads are thought to have been given as gifts in ancient times

‘Humans are just outlandishly social animals, and that goes back to these deep forces that selected for maximising information, information that would have been useful for living in a hunter-gatherer society 30,000 years ago and earlier.’

Anthropologists have long-known that modern hunter-gatherers trade ostrich eggshell beads to cement their interpersonal relationships — with such being practised among living Bushman groups in the Kalahari Desert.

They were able to trace the origin of the beads using atom analysis

Ostriches don’t typically live in the mountainous, high-elevation environment of Lesotho, however — and archaeologists found no evidence, like bead fragments or samples of unworked eggshell, to suggest the beads were being made there either.

This led Professor Stewart and colleagues to wonder exactly where the beads found in the archaeological record there had come from.

To trace the origin of the beads, the team looked at a radioactive isotope called strontium, which is formed for the breakdown of another element, rubidium-87. Older rocks — such as granites and gneisses — contain more strontium than younger rocks like basalts.

Strontium atoms are taken up from the ground by plants like grass, which are in turn eaten by animals like ostriches — and in this way can end up within materials like eggshells, creating a signal of the geology where they were formed.

Using plant and soil samples, as well as tooth enamel is taken from modern rodent specimens from museum collections, the researchers created a map of the strontium signals from across Lesotho and the surrounding areas.

The basalt-rich volcanic mountains that make up the core of Lesotho contain less strontium, for example than the surrounding and older sedimentary rocks.

The team’s analysis revealed that nearly 80 percent of the beads found in Lesotho could not have originated from nearby highland areas.  ‘These ornaments were consistently coming from very long distances,’ said Dr. Stewart.

‘The oldest bead in our sample had the third-highest strontium isotope value, so it is also one of the most exotic.’

Some of the beads, the team found, must have come from eggshells from at least 202 miles (325 kilometres) from Lesotho — and perhaps even as far away as 621 miles (1,000 kilometres).

The archaeologists worked at rock shelters at Sehonghong and Melikane in southern Africa

The team also found that the beads were being exchanged during a period of climatic upheaval which spanned from around 59–29 thousand years ago.

According to Dr. Stewart, the use of the beads to build relationships between different hunter-gatherer groups may have ensured one group’s access to others’ resources when their region’s weather took a turn for the worse.

‘What happened 50,000 years ago was that the climate was going through enormous swings, so it might be no coincidence that that’s exactly when you get this technology coming in,’ he said.

‘These exchange networks could be used for information on resources, the condition of landscapes, of animals, plant foods, other people and perhaps marriage partners.’ The full findings of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

A 2,400-year-old: World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Found at the Bottom of the Black Sea

A 2,400-year-old: World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Found at the Bottom of the Black Sea

At the bottom of the Black Sea, the oldest preserved shipwreck ever found has been discovered. After more than 2,400 years, the 75ft Greek trade vessel was discovered lying whole with its anchor, rudders and rowing benches. It was discovered in a well-known ‘shipwreck graveyard’ that has already revealed over 60 other vessels.

The team found what has now been confirmed as the “oldest intact shipwreck” in the world during the most recent excavation, a Greek trade vessel style previously only seen on the side of ancient Greek pottery such as the “Siren Vase” in the British Museum.

The ship, found 1.3 miles under the surface, could shed new light on the ancient Greek tale of Odysseus tying himself to a mast to avoid being tempted by sirens. The vase shows Odysseus, the hero from Homer’s epic poem, tied to the mast of a similar ship as he resisted the Siren’s calls.

The Anglo-Bulgarian team believe the Black Sea wreck dates back to the Fourth Century BC, perhaps 100 years after the Siren Vase was painted

A remote-controlled submarine piloted by British scientists spotted the ship lying on its side about 50 miles off the coast of Bulgaria. The ship lies in over 1.3miles of water, deep in the Black Sea where the water is anoxic (oxygen-free) which can preserve organic material for thousands of years. A small piece of the vessel has been carbon dated and it is confirmed as coming from 400BC – making the ship the oldest intact shipwreck known to mankind.

The 75ft shipwreck was been found lying whole with its mast, rudders and rowing benches after more than 2,400 years.
The shipwreck was found nearly 7,000ft under the sea in ‘remarkable’ condition, with some suggesting it has similarities to a ship shown on an ancient vase that depicts Odysseus tying the mast of a similar ship as he resisted the Siren’s calls

Jon Adams, the project’s chief scientist, said the wreck was very well-preserved, with the rudder and tiller still in place.  A ship, surviving intact, from the Classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is something I would never have believed possible,’ he said

This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.’ Prior to this discovery, ancient ships had only been found in fragments with the oldest more than 3,000 years old.  The team from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeological Project said the find also revealed how far from the shore ancient Greek traders could travel.     

Adams told The Times the ship probably sank in a storm, with the crew unable to bail water in time to save it. The archaeologist believes it probably held 15 to 25 men at the time whose remains may be hidden in the surrounding sediment or eaten by bacteria. He said he plans to leave the ship on the seabed because raising it would be hugely expensive and require taking the pint joints apart.

The ship was both oar and sail-powered. 

It was chiefly used for trading but the professor believes it may have been involved in a little bit of raiding’ of coastal cities. It was probably based at one of the ancient Greek settlements on what is now the Bulgarian coast.

He said: ‘Ancient seafarers were not hugging the coast timidly going from port to port but going blue-water sailing.’

The find is one of 67 wrecks found in the area.

Previous finds were discovered dating back as far as 2,500 years, including galleys from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Scientists stumbled upon the graveyard while using underwater robots to survey the effects of climate change along the Bulgarian coast.  Because the Black Sea contains almost no light or oxygen, little life can survive, meaning the wrecks are in excellent condition.

Researchers say their discovery is ‘truly unrivalled’. 

Many of the ships have features that are only known from drawings or written description but never seen until now.  Carvings in the wood of some ships have remained intact for centuries, while the well-preserved rope was found aboard one 2,000-year-old Roman vessel. The project, known Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP), involves an international team led by the University of Southampton’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology.

Ed Parker, CEO of Black Sea MAP, said: ‘Some of the ships we discovered had only been seen on murals and mosaics until this moment. There’s one medieval trading vessel where the towers on the bow and stern are pretty much still there. It’s as if you are looking at a ship in a movie, with ropes still on the deck and carvings in the wood.

‘When I saw that ship, the excitement really started to mount – what we have found is truly unrivalled.’ Most of the vessels found are around 1,300 years old, but the oldest dates back to the 4th Century BC. Many of the wrecks’ details and locations are being kept secret by the team to ensure they remain undisturbed. Black Sea water below 150 metres (490 ft) is anoxic, meaning the environment cannot support the organisms that typically feast on organic materials, such as wood and flesh.

As a result, there is an extraordinary opportunity for preservation, including shipwrecks and the cargoes they carried. Ships lie hundreds or thousands of metres deep with their masts still standing, rudders in place, cargoes of amphorae and ship’s fittings lying on the deck. Many of the ships show structural features, fittings and equipment that are only known from drawings or written description but never seen until now.

Project leader Professor Jon Adams, of the University of Southampton, said: ‘This assemblage must comprise one of the finest underwater museums of ships and seafaring in the world.’

The expedition has been scouring the waters 1,800 metres (5,900ft) below the surface of the Black Sea since 2015 using an off-shore vessel equipped with some of the most advanced underwater equipment in the world. The vessel is on an expedition mapping submerged ancient landscapes which were inundated with water following the last Ice Age. The researchers had discovered over 40 wrecks across two previous expeditions, but during their latest trip, which spanned several weeks and returned this month, they uncovered more than 20 new sites.

Returning to the Port of Burgas in Bulgaria, Professor Jon Adams said: ‘Black Sea MAP now draws towards the end of its third season, acquiring more than 1300km [800 miles] of the survey so far, recovering another 100m (330 ft) of sediment core samples and discovering over 20 new wreck sites, some dating to the Byzantine, Roman and Hellenistic periods.’  

The researchers are using two Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to survey the sea bed. One is optimised for high-resolution 3D photography, while the other, called Surveyor Interceptor, ‘flies’ at four times the speed of conventional ROVs. The Interceptor carries an entire suite of geophysical instrumentation, as well as lights, high definition cameras and a laser scanner.  Since the project started, Surveyor Interceptor has set new records for depth at 5,900ft (1,800 metres) and sustained speed of over six knots (7mph), and has covered 1,250 kilometres (776 miles). Among the wrecks are shipped from the Roman, Ottoman and Byzantine Empires, which provide new information on the communities on the Black Sea coast.

Professor Jon Adams of The Black Sea Maritime Archaeology project holding a 3D model of a Greek shipwreck from 400BC, officially the World’s oldest intact shipwreck, at the Wellcome Collection, London

Many of the colonial and commercial activities of ancient Greece and Rome, and of the Byzantine Empire, centred on the Black Sea.  After 1453, when the Ottoman Turks occupied Constantinople – and changed its name to Istanbul – the Black Sea was virtually closed to foreign commerce.  Nearly 400 years later, in 1856, the Treaty of Paris re-opened the sea to the commerce of all nations. The scientists were followed by Bafta-winning filmmakers for much of the three-year project and a documentary is expected in the coming years. Producer Andy Byatt, who worked on the David Attenborough BBC series ‘Blue Planet’, said: ‘I think we have all been blown away by the remarkable finds that Professor Adams and his team have made.

‘The quality of the footage revealing this hidden world is absolutely unique.’

ESTONIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Repurposed Shipwreck Unearthed in Estonia

Repurposed Shipwreck Unearthed in Estonia

Wrecks of ships found near the shoreline in Tallinn are keeping archaeologists busy and show that ship materials have been reused for centuries.

ERR News reports that part of a ship’s hull has been unearthed in Tallinn, Estonia, which is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

Priit Lätti of the Estonian Maritime Museum said that timber, sails, ropes, and metal from old ships would have been repurposed, a practice that dates back to the medieval period.

 When a ship had reached the end of its lifespan, everything still usable was sawn off and reused – timber, sails, ropes and metal.

Hulks that were beached on purpose have been discovered in Tallinn.

“In a situation where both ships and dock structures were made of wood, the fire was among the chief concerns. We know that ships that caught fire were towed out of the harbour to keep the fire from spreading and allowed to drift onto the beach,” Lätti said.

A month ago, construction workers found a part of a hull on Kiikri street near Kadriorg from which all usable timber had been sawn off just above the waterline.

Ship construction was skilled work and the materials valuable. The hulk continued to be of use after being decommissioned – archaeologists have also found details used in shipbuilding in Tallinn’s Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats).

“We have found rivets that we believe were used in shipbuilding. It does not mean the sea used to reach up there, simply that details from ships were later reused,” Lätti used.

Tallinn became a military port when the land became part of the Russian Empire in the early 18th century.

ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Traces of Tenth-Century Temple Unearthed in Eastern India

Traces of Tenth-Century Temple Unearthed in Eastern India

The Hindustan Times reports that researchers led by Arun Malik of the Archaeological Survey of India uncovered traces of a building thought to be a tenth-century temple while excavating an area next to the eleventh-century Suka-Sari temple complex, which is located near eastern India’s city of Bhubaneswar.

ASI officials said while carrying out scientific cleaning of the two-acre land adjacent to the 11th-century Suka-Sari temple complex, they found the floor of the temple as well as a portion of wall containing beautifully engraved statues of danseuses of the temple that was earlier buried under the campus of a demolished Sanskrit college in Bhubaneswar.

“We think the temple was built on the Panchayatana model like the Brahmeshwara and Chitrakarini temples which are of the 10th-century origin.

A base (Shakti) of Shivling has also been found during digging at the site.

Another side of the wall is being dug out and it will require 10 more days to completely bring out the structures,” said Arun Mallick, superintendent of ASI’s Bhubaneswar circle.

Mallick said many ancient structures around the vicinity of Lingaraj temple are believed to have been damaged during the demolition drive carried out by the Odisha government for renovation of the old town area under Ekamra Kshetra Project.

“Bhubaneswar is said to be the city of more than 1000 temples. We believe many structures have been demolished during the current demolition exercise.

We tried to reason with them about not carrying out indiscriminate demolition. But the state government did not take note of our protests,” he said.

Among the heritage structures demolished around the Lingaraj temple is the 11th century Ganesh temple called Budha Ganesh on the northern side of Lingaraj complex.

It has been listed as a protected monument years ago and is one of the smallest Ganesh temples of Bhubaneswar.

The oldest structure in Bhubaneswar is Baitala temple, that is believed to have been built during the 8th century by the Bhaumakara kings.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

A trove of ‘Ancient Treasures’ Found in Shipwreck Off the Coast of Greece

A trove of ‘Ancient Treasures’ Found in Shipwreck Off the Coast of Greece

That was when researchers in Greece made the breakthrough of a lifetime in the fall of 2020. There were four shipwrecks just off the beaches of the island of Kasos. These shipwrecks span millennia, but they also contained ancient artefacts that now serve as a window through time — and offer a glimpse into some of the trade networks of the ancient world.

The shipwrecks were first unearthed in the fall of 2020.

The four ships were all dated to various historical times, according to The Smithsonian, one from the Hellenistic era in the first century B.C., one from the Classical era in the fifth century B.C., one from the second or third century A.D., and one that was fairly modern.

While these are all significant finds, the most remarkable discovery was a trove of Roman pottery — which was found on the shipwreck from the second or third century A.D. This hoard included amphorae filled with oil that had been produced in Spain, as well as amphorae from modern-day Tunisia.

“This is the first time we [have found] amphorae from Spain and North Africa, which probably transported oil to Rhodes or the coasts of Asia Minor,” said Xanthis Argyris, who served as the co-leader of the expedition.

According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, amphorae are basically jars or jugs with two vertical handles. In days of antiquity, they were often used for storing and transporting food, olive oil, or wine.

Divers bringing ancient pottery to the surface.

The term amphora itself comes from the Greek word amphiphoreus, which essentially translates to “carried on both sides.” While often associated with the Greeks, these jars were also commonly used by ancient Romans and Phoenicians.

Amphorae have served archaeologists and historians well, in terms of revealing the diets and behaviours of ancient civilizations. One can deduce what they ate and drank, what they deemed worthy enough of rigorous transportation, and what their trade routes may have looked like.

According to Ancient Origins, the fact that these preserved amphorae were found in a Roman shipwreck off Kasos has already told researchers a lot. Situated between Crete and Karpathos, Kasos is the southernmost Greek island — and it’s also located on a historic trade route that connects the Aegean region to the Middle East.

As such, this area has obviously been of great interest to researchers. And over the past three years, the Kasos Maritime Archaeological Project — led by the National Hellenic Research Foundation and the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities — has been combing the seas around Kasos in the hopes of finding new artefacts. This latest excavation required immense effort on the part of the researchers — and led to huge results.

One of the many ancient amphorae discovered in the Roman-era shipwreck off Kasos.

Unearthing these items has required 100 group dives totalling about 200 hours, led by 23 experts in a variety of fields. Perhaps most stunning is that Argyris and his fellow co-leader Georgios Koutsouflakis were able to cover more than 80 per cent of the area that they’ve deemed of interest.

Meanwhile, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports explained that ancient Kasos was “a crossroads of cultures,” which is apparently still fertile with archaeological finds today. The amphorae found last fall are said to hold more clues about trade in the Mediterranean throughout history.

And these recently found shipwrecks are not the only discoveries that can help paint that picture. In 2019, the same research team that found these Roman-era amphorae found five other shipwrecks, one of which dated to the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s.

With the others spanning from the fourth century B.C. to modern times, there’s no question that there are far more discoveries lurking beneath the ocean’s surface in the area. Fortunately, Argyris and Koutsouflakis have already scheduled additional dives for this year.

A trove of ‘Ancient Treasures’ Found in Shipwreck Off the Coast of Greece
The newly discovered shipwrecks spanned millennia, from ancient years to modern times.

“The next research project will include a state-of-the-art seabed detection machine without divers that will give us possible wreck points both on the surface and at the bottom,” said Argyris.

Most fascinating of all is that this endeavour is now more precise than ever before. The team essentially began the project with a mere map of the Mediterranean Sea and potential points of interest for diving teams. After the last few discoveries, that map is now dotted with found shipwrecks.

In that sense, a simple jug tells us much more than what items were once stored inside it. Finding these artefacts and keeping track of their locations allows experts to connect the dots along trade routes — and hopefully figure out how these items ended up where they did.

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