ECUADOR, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Infants from 2100 years ago found with helmets made of children’s skulls

Infants from 2100 years ago found with helmets made of children’s skulls

According to the new study, two babies from ancient South American burial mounds have been discovered wearing helmets made from the skulls of other infants.

Skulls and other objects excavated at burial sites on the coast of Ecuador.

As researchers tell in their report published earlier this month in the science journal, Latin American Antiquity, this is the first recorded evidence of ancient people using children’s skulls as burial headgear anywhere in the world.

Excavations on Ecuador’s coast from 2014 to 2016 discovered the bodies of 11 people in ancient burial mounds, including two adults, one young person, and four infants. Around the burials, small artefacts and shells were discovered.

But it was two of the infants wearing skull “helmets” found in two burial mounds dated to approximately 100 BC that really grabbed attention.

The research — led by University of North Carolina at Charlotte assistant professor Sara Juengst — found that one baby was 18 months old at the time of death, and was wearing parts of the skull of another child aged between four and 12 years old.

The skull was placed in a “helmet-like fashion around the head of the first, such that the primary individual’s face looked through,” the researchers said. A small shell and a child’s finger bone was found between the skull “helmet” and the infant’s head.

Items found during excavations of ancient burial sites on the coast of Ecuador.

The other infant was aged between six and nine months old and was wearing skull fragments of a child aged between two and 12 years old.

Researchers said the skull “helmets” likely still had flesh on them when they were put on the infants’ heads, as children’s skulls often don’t hold together.

The story behind the skull ‘helmets’

In the study, researchers acknowledged that there were a number of questions remaining. They did not know whose skulls had been turned into “helmets” — or why two babies were wearing “helmets” while others were not.

But the researchers noted that detached heads were “symbolically important” in South America, and dead children were often given special treatment in death.

“The human head was a potent symbol for many South American cultures,” the study found.

The researchers speculated that the skull “helmets” could have been an attempt to protect the babies’ souls — a theory that they said was given weight by the figurines found around the burial site.

The area had been hit by volcanic ashfall before the burial, the study said.

“A tantalizing hypothesis is that this bodily stress is related to the volcanic ash fall that preceded these burials, and that the treatment of the two infants was part of a larger, complex ritual response to environmental consequences of the eruption,” the researchers said. “More evidence is needed to confirm this.”

The researchers also noted that there was no evidence of the tomb being reopened or manipulated after the initial burial.

Previous studies have uncovered details of burial rites of ancient civilizations of South America.

Earlier this year, archaeologists in Peru found the remains of around 250 children sacrificed by the pre-Colombian Chimu civilization.

WORLD

Native Americans may have reached Polynesia long before Europeans

Native Americans may have reached Polynesia long before Europeans

According to an eye-opening study published by Stanford Medicine scholars, early Polynesian sailors possibly arrived in South America decades before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World.

Stanford postdoctoral scholar Alexander Ioannidis and his colleagues give the first definitive proof in a report published in the journal Nature that Polynesians and Native Americans encountered about 300 years before Europeans arrived on the continent.

The authors uncovered the prior interaction between Polynesians and Native Americans from the area which includes what is now Colombia, by using deep genetic analyses, a hypothesis that has been fiercely discussed by historians and archaeologists for decades.

Genetic clues reveal early migration from South America to Polynesia.

According to the authors’ statistical analyses, this meeting took place around 1200 A.D., during the so-called Dark Ages in Europe — and long before Columbus set sail from the Spanish port of Palos. This likely occurred during the Polynesian peoples’ voyages of discovery in the remote eastern Pacific around the same time, during which they located the remaining Pacific island groups, from Hawaii to New Zealand and Rapa Nui.

Proponents of this view speculate that common cultural elements, such as similarities in certain words used by both groups, suggest the two cultures met prior to the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century.

Opponents like to point out that the two groups were separated by thousands of miles of ocean which neither group was likely to traverse.

Previous studies focused on ancient DNA samples taken from bones, however, these samples tend to be heavily degraded and unsuitable for drawing valid conclusions.

“The team’s goal was to reconstruct the ancestral roots that have shaped the diversity of these populations and answer deep, long-standing questions about the potential contact between Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, connecting two of the most understudied regions of the world,” according to senior author Andrés Moreno-Estrada, professor and head of genomic services at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Mexico.

Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.

The researchers analyzed genome-wide variation in individuals from across Polynesia for signs of Native American DNA sequences.

Using genetic data collected from the saliva of 807 living indigenous inhabitants of Colombia and residents of 17 French Polynesian islands, the authors searched for signals suggesting a common ancestry. They traced genetic signatures found in trackable, heritable segments of the subjects’ DNA dating back hundreds of years to the Polynesian settlement of Oceania.

Computational methods developed during Ioannidis’ graduate work allowed researchers to localize the Native American DNA to modern-day Colombia.

They now believe that the Polynesians probably landed there. While pre-Columbian indigenous tribes crafted all manner of drift rafts and were known to trade with other groups along the coast, it’s less likely that Native American vessels would have sailed to Polynesia based on what we know of their coastal travel patterns.

“We found identical-by-descent segments of Native American ancestry across several Polynesian islands,” said Ioannidis. “It was conclusive evidence that there was a single shared contact event.” This means that members of the two cultures not only met, but they also produced children combining identifiable genetic traits unique to both groups.

And then there’s the mystery of the sweet potato.

Ioannidis notes the sweet potato is native to the Americas but is known to have been grown in only one other place prior to European contact: Oceania, which includes many Pacific islands including Polynesia.

The Polynesian word for sweet potato, “kumala,” is similar to the word used by certain indigenous groups in the Andes, “cumal,” leading some archaeologists and historians to believe that the two groups did in fact meet.

Other New World crops, like the bottle gourd, are also found in the Polynesian archaeological record but appear nowhere else outside the pre-Columbian Americas.

Previous genetic research focused on a possible link between Native Americans and the inhabitants of Rapa Nui, the closest inhabited Polynesian island to the Americas, which revealed a Native American component in the genes of those with Rapanui ancestry. However, in a genome-wide study of eight modern individuals and five skeletal remains, all of the former and none of the latter had such a component — leading to opposing conclusions about their pre-European contacts.

Moai statues at the Rano Raraku site on Easter Island
Left: Polynesians on Nuku Hiva, an island in the North Marquesas, carry traces of Native American ancestry; Right: Artist’s impression of a Polynesian individual with genetic roots tracing back to diverse regions across the Pacific and the Americas, denoting the mixed origin of the population.

“Genomics is at a stage where it can really make useful contributions to answering some of these open questions,” said Ioannidis. “I think it’s really exciting that we, as data scientists and geneticists, are able to contribute in a meaningful way to our understanding of human history.”

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Aztec skull tower: Archaeologists unearth new sections in Mexico City

Aztec skull tower: Archaeologists unearth new sections in Mexico City

More sections of an extraordinary Aztec tower of human skulls have been excavated by archaeologists in the centre of Mexico City. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico said a further 119 skulls had been uncovered.

Aztec skull tower: Archaeologists unearth new sections in Mexico City
A photo shows parts of an Aztec tower of human skulls, believed to form part of the Huey Tzompantli, a massive array of skulls that struck fear into the Spanish conquistadores.

While restoring a building in the Mexican capital, the tower was discovered in 2015. It is thought to be part of the temple’s skull rack for the Aztec god of the sun, war, and human sacrifice.

Known as the Huey Tzompantli, the skull rack stood on the corner of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, the patron of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

The Aztecs were a group of Nahuatl-speaking peoples that dominated large parts of central Mexico from the 14th to the 16th centuries.

Their empire was overthrown by invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who captured Tenochtitlan in 1521.

A photo shows parts of an Aztec tower of human skulls, believed to form part of the Huey Tzompantli, at the Templo Mayor archaeology site, in Mexico City.

A similar structure to the Huey Tzompantli struck fear in the soldiers accompanying the Spanish conqueror when they invaded the city.

The cylindrical structure is near the huge Metropolitan Cathedral built over the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples of Tenochtitlan, now modern-day Mexico City.

“The Templo Mayor continues to surprise us, and the Huey Tzompantli is without doubt one of the most impressive archaeological finds of recent years in our country,” Mexican Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto said.

Archaeologists have identified three construction phases of the tower, which dates back to between 1486 and 1502.

The tower’s original discovery surprised anthropologists, who had been expecting to find the skulls of young male warriors but also unearthed the crania of women and children, raising questions about human sacrifice in the Aztec Empire.

“Although we can’t say how many of these individuals were warriors, perhaps some were captives destined for sacrificial ceremonies,” said archaeologist Raul Barrera.

“We do know that they were all made sacred,” he added. “Turned into gifts for the gods or even personifications of deities themselves.”

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Dino-mite: N.C. museum gets fossils of dinosaurs that apparently died fighting

Dino-mite: N.C. museum gets fossils of dinosaurs that apparently died fighting

Apparently locked in battle on the plains of modern-day Montana, about 66 million years after two dinosaurs died, an unusual fight over who owns the entangled fossils has become a multimillion-dollar issue that depends on the legal definition of “mineral.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the “Dueling Dinosaurs” located on private land are minerals both scientifically and under mineral rights laws.

The fossils belong both to the owners of the property where they were found and two brothers who kept two-thirds of the mineral rights to the land once owned by their father, a three-judge panel said in a split decision.

Eric Edward Nord, an attorney for the property owners, said the case is complex in dealing with who owns what’s on top of land vs. the minerals that make it up and addresses a unique question of mineral rights law related to dinosaur fossils that no court in the country has taken up before.

His clients own part of a ranch in the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana that’s rich with prehistoric fossils, including the Dueling Dinosaurs whose value had been appraised at $7 million to $9 million.

Lige and Mary Ann Murray bought it from George Severson, who also transferred part of his interest in the ranch to his sons, Jerry and Robert Severson. In 2005, the brothers sold their surface rights to the Murrays, but retained the mineral rights, court documents said.

At the time, neither side suspected valuable dinosaur fossils were buried on the ranch, court records said. A few months later, amateur palaeontologist Clayton Phipps discovered the carnivore and herbivore apparently locked in battle. Imprints of the dinosaurs’ skin were also in the sediment.

A dispute arose in 2008 when the Seversons learned about the fossils — a 22-foot-long (7-meter-long) theropod and a 28-foot-long (9-meter-long) ceratopsian.

The Murrays sought a court order saying they owned the Dueling Dinosaurs, while the Seversons asked a judge to find that fossils are part of the property’s mineral estate and that they were entitled to partial ownership.

One of two “duelling dinosaur” fossils is displayed in New York. Ownership of two fossilized dinosaur skeletons found on a Montana ranch in 2006 is the subject of a legal battle over whether they are part of a property’s surface rights or mineral rights. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a split decision saying fossils are minerals under mineral rights laws.

It had wider implications because the ranch is in an area that has numerous prehistoric creatures preserved in layers of clay and sandstone. Palaeontologists have unearthed thousands of specimens now housed in museums and used for research.

But fossils discovered on private land can be privately owned, frustrating palaeontologists who say valuable scientific information is being lost.

During the court case, the Dueling Dinosaurs were put up for auction in New York in November 2013. Bidding topped out at $5.5 million, less than the reserve price of $6 million.

A nearly complete Tyrannosaurus rex found on the property was sold to a Dutch museum for several million dollars in 2014, with the proceeds being held in escrow pending the outcome of the court case.

Other fossils found on the ranch also have been sold, including a triceratops skull that brought in more than $200,000, court records said.

The 9th Circuit decision on Nov. 6 overturned a federal judge’s 2016 opinion that fossils were not included in the ordinary definition of “mineral” because not all fossils with the same mineral composition are considered valuable.

“The composition of minerals found in the fossils does not make them valuable or worthless,” U.S. District Judge Susan Watters of Billings wrote. “Instead, the value turns on characteristics other than mineral composition, such as the completeness of the specimen, the species of dinosaur and how well it is preserved.”

The Severson’s had appealed, arguing previous court cases determined that naturally occurring materials that have some special value meet the definition of minerals.

Attorneys for the Murrays asked the 9th Circuit this week for an extension of a Nov. 21 deadline to petition the judges to reconsider or for a hearing before an 11-judge panel.

ASIA, IRAN, WORLD

12000 Years Old Body Of A Anunnaki King Found Completely Intact?

12000 Years Old Body Of A Anunnaki King Found Completely Intact?

This discovery was made completely by chance in 2008, and if we know what happened is certainly thanks to the Russian media, and to the television press.

It happened in Kurdistan, Iran, a country quite closed to the world, at least in the western world, but with good relations with Russia. (Body of an Anunnaki King)

Although hidden until today, we get to know what has been published by the Russian press.

The discovery occurred in work when digging the ground to make the foundations of a house.

Then came a mausoleum containing three coffins, and after making more concise excavations, the remains of an ancient civilization and the ruins of a city were found in a layer of earth. (Body of an Anunnaki King)

Archaeologists determined that the monument and the city were built between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, a date quickly revised by the Islamic authorities after Find publication in the Russian press.

The Iranian authorities publicly stated that the ruins were 850 years old, which obviously does not correspond to the facts and is, again, an official lie.

Of the three sarcophagi found in the mausoleum, we only have video evidence of the first two.

We know nothing of the third, nor of its content, nor of who was inside.

As you can see, it is very difficult from the video to determine the height of the individual, although they appear to be very high.

Both seem to be in a state of suspended animation. One wears a crown, suggesting that he was the ruler of the city, and was buried, as can be observed, with his sorcerer, which leads him to conclude that in the third sarcophagus he must have contained his wife Reina.

There are gold coins placed in the eyes of the king, which is a well-attested habit of antiquity. This is a first blow to the official lie that the ruins are from the twelfth century.

It can be observed that it has Caucasian features, but copper skin: the second individual sarcophagus shares these same characteristics.

It looks like they are adorned with gold and precious stones.

These ornaments carry a cuneiform script that is not identifiable but has been translated, giving the name of the second man found in the second sarcophagus and thus his magician by profession.

The royal sarcophagus seems to be clothed with gold or metal that resembles it, and near the monarch can be seen a gold casket encrusted with strange gems, just like those found adorning the king, it is said strange because they seem luminescent. (Body of an Anunnaki King)

EUROPE, SLOVAKIA, WORLD

Bronze Figurine with Gold Eyes Unearthed in Slovakia

Bronze Figurine with Gold Eyes Unearthed in Slovakia

In the village of Jánovce, near Poprad, the Spiš Museum in Spišská Nová Ves has presented an important discovery: a Celtic bronze statue.

The museum conducted archaeological research in Jánovce in the location of Pod Hradiskom (Under the Hillfort) in spring and autumn of this year, explained archaeologist Mária Hudáková.

It is a locality known since the 19th century, but had not been systematically researched until now, she said.

The excavation works revealed more than 800 objects from different historical time periods, from prehistory to the modern era.

“These are mostly Celtic coins, bronze clips and other parts of clothing, products from clay, ceramics, wharves and glass beads and bracelets,” Mária Hudáková said, as quoted by the TASR.

The Celts were almost everywhere within the European borders. Their movements began during the Great Celtic Migrations that took place, in approximately around 500 BC and ended in c. 100 BC.

During these 400 years, the Celts, in seemingly endless waves, spread out throughout Europe and lived in large parts of Europe during the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

By 200 BC, the Celtic language was being spoken in the modern-day nations of Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, and, even to a lesser extent, Turkey.

Undoubtedly, the most precious find discovered in Jánovce is the bronze figurine of the man who is depicted naked but he wears a piece of jewellery in the form of a neckerchief.

The man’s golden eyes are another unique detail in this very realistic depiction.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Sinkhole Reveals 19th-Century Well in Boston Park

Historic Well Discovered Under Mysterious Sinkhole In Boston’s Ronan Park

Over the weekend, a mysterious sinkhole was found in Ronan Park by a local, and Archeologist Joe Bagley of the City of Boston announced on Thursday that the sinkhole actually leads to a historical well from the 1800s.

According to Bagley, this was discovered by lowering an iPhone with LED lights into the hole with a rope.

“The way the well is positioned in the ground, it is currently under about 10 feet of fill that is brought to the site to create Ronan Park in 1912,” said Bagley.

Sinkhole Reveals 19th-Century Well in Boston Park
A mysterious sinkhole in Ronan Park. 

“The top of the well is located 10 feet below that and the well is about 6.5 feet deep. That makes the total opening in the park about 16.5 half feet deep. The well is about 2.5 feet wide.”

Bagley also said the reason sinkhole formed was due to the recent rain that loosened up the soil in the ground.

He went on to explain the interesting history behind the well and how it became a part of the land.

According to Bagley, a pastor for the nearby First Church in Dorchester purchased the property in the 1790s and built a mansion on the northern end of the park.

The land where the well ended up being located remained underdeveloped until it was purchased in 1818 by John F. Pierce, a cabinet and piano maker. He built a 10-acre property and lived nearby.

His estate was broken up on September 22, 1871, and a widow by the name of Mary L. Pierce, who Bagley said was possibly related to John F. Pierce, ended up getting the property.

Bagley says the well was either built-in 1818 by John F. Pierce and his estate or by Mary L. Pierce between 1871 or 1872.

“It’s either or at this point,” said Bagley. “The well would have likely been abandoned in the 1870s to 1890s when this area received running water for the first time from Boston Water and Sewer.

At that point, Mary passed away and the property transferred to another person by the name of Hannah Bliss, who then sold the property to the city of Boston to turn it into Ronan Park.”

The resident who found the sinkhole over the weekend called 311, so Boston Fire and Police responded.

Ryan Woods, the Commissioner of Boston’s Parks and Recreation, says the sinkhole is being examined to make sure all the drainage is intact before it is filled again.

“It should be filled back within the next two weeks. So by the end of this month, it should be back to normal, completely reseeded and completely filled,” said Woods.

As of Thursday, the hole had been blocked off with barricades, police tape and a fence.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Amazing mosaic of the ancient Greek god Poseidon found in Turkey

Amazing mosaic of the ancient Greek god Poseidon found in Turkey

Archaeological excavations in the southern Turkish province of Adana’s Yumurtalık district have unearthed a rare mosaic depicting the ancient Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. It is believed to date back to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.

The Poseidon mosaic was found in the frigidarium (large cold pool of a Roman bath) part of the ancient bath at the ancient city of Aegae, which is a 1st-degree archaeological field.

The bottom part of the mosaic contains partly ruined writing in Greek: “Greetings to all of you bathing.” 

Adana Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Sabri Tari said the coastal Yumurtalık district was called Aegae in the ancient era.

Tari said the city served as a naval base in the era of the Roman Empire and it was also a famous place for Asclepius, the god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. 

“One of three big Asclepius temples of the ancient world is in this city,” he added. 

Archaeological excavations near the Turkish province of Adana have unearthed a rare mosaic depicting the ancient Greek god of the sea, Poseidon

Tari said the region is rich in historical tissue, and they had previously found a mosaic depicting the god of love, Eros. 

“We found a new mosaic during recent excavations. The Poseidon mosaic, which is a rare one in terms of its beauty, was unearthed in the grounds of the frigidarium,” he said. 

Mosaic nearly 11 square meters 

Adana Museum Deputy Director Nedim Dervişoğlu said they continued to place a big importance on excavations in order to further boost the province’s tourism potential, with such works carried out in a number of different parts of the city. 

“During excavations, we found a mosaic on a field over a space of 11.39 square meters. It is separated into two main panels.

The depiction in the southeastern part of the mosaic has been completely destroyed while the depiction in the north shows Poseidon carrying a trident.

There are dolphins in the right and left of Poseidon. When the excavations are completed around the mosaic, the depiction will be meaningful. We believe it dates back to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.,” Dervişoğlu said.

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