The miniature Sculpture of a bird was Carved 13,500 years ago
A miniature bird statue carved out of burnt bone has been unearthed by archaeologists in Lingjing, China. At over 13,000 years it is believed to be the oldest East Asian work of art ever found.
Humans have been creating sculptures since the Upper Paleolithic period (50,000 to 12,000 years ago), the earliest being a lion-headed human carved from mammoth tusk found in German caves, dating back 35,000-40,000 years.
This bird figurine shows that sculpture was emerging independently in East Asia during the same period.
Discovered by a team of archaeologists led by Prof Francesco d’Errico at the University of Bordeaux, France, the 2cm-long bird is incredibly well-preserved, with a short neck, rounded bill and long tail, and a pedestal so that it can stand up.
The sculpture is thought to represent a ‘passerine’ – a diverse group of birds that includes the sparrows, finches and thrushes.
Photo (top) and 3D reconstruction using microtomography (bottom) of the miniature bird sculpture.
The researchers analysed the bird using microscopy and X-ray scanning, determining that it was carved from a mammal limb bone that had been blackened by heating.
They also painstakingly reconstructed the sculpting process: the bird was created using four different techniques – gouging, abrading, scraping, and incising.
“Our analysis reveals that the Lingjing artist has chosen the appropriate techniques and applied them skillfully to faithfully reproduce the distinct anatomical features of a passerine,” they write.
“The style of this diminutive representation is original and remarkably different from all other known Paleolithic avian figurines.”
The researchers estimate the figurine to be 13,500 years old – more than 8,500 years older than other animal sculptures found in East Asia.
World War II–Era Code Machine Recovered from Baltic Sea
From the bottom of the Baltic Sea in Europe, three-quarters of a century after it was lost at the end of the Second World War, one of the most famous puzzles on the planet has been recovered.
A mechanical encryption device that once confounded the Allies while allowing Adolf Hitler’s Nazis to make battle plans in secret, German divers say they have dredged up a long-lost Enigma machine.
The typewriter-like machine was found on the seafloor of Gelting Bay in northeast Germany, where divers were working to collect old fishing nets on behalf of the World Wildlife Federation.
The Enigma cipher machine was discovered on the seabed in Gelting Bay near Flensburg, Germany.
It’s believed the Nazis tossed the device overboard in an attempt to destroy it in the final days of the war, as part of an effort to keep German technology out of the Allies’ hands.
Divers initially thought the object was an old typewriter, but underwater archaeologist Florian Huber says he recognized it after it was brought up to the surface.
“I’ve made many exciting and strange discoveries in the past 20 years,” he told Reuters. “But I never dreamed that we would one day find one of the legendary Enigma machines.”
While searching for abandoned fishing nets, German divers discovered this Enigma machine in the Baltic Sea.
The Enigma machine was essentially an encrypted typewriter that allowed the Germans to send and receive messages without fear of them being intercepted and decoded by the enemy.
The Nazis used the machines to coordinate their war efforts for years, thanks to a shifting encryption process that would change every 24 hours.
British cryptographers worked tirelessly to decode the encrypted messages at Bletchley Park.
Legendary mathematician Alan Turing is widely credited with finally cracking the code in 1941, which allowed the Allies to spy on German communications in the latter days of the war. The breakthrough came after Britain seized an Enigma machine from a captured German sub.
The codebreakers’ work is thought to have helped end the war and save thousands of lives. It also inspired the Oscar-nominated film The Imitation Game in 2014.
Huber says the Enigma machine found in Gelting Bay was likely lost in May 1945, around the time that the Germans surrendered.
German forces were ordered to sink approximately 50 of their own submarines in Gelting Bay at the end of the war, in an effort to prevent the subs from being captured. Crews were also specifically instructed to destroy the Enigma machines on board.
“We suspect our Enigma went overboard in the course of the event,” said Huber, who works for an underwater research firm called Submarines.
The divers have decided to donate the device to a museum where it can be restored and put on display.
Surviving Enigma machines are rare in 2020, although examples can be found at museums scattered across the world, including Canada. The restoration process for the new discovery is expected to take about a year.
Carving on 5,000-year-old Sudan rock shows world oldest Place name
Wadi Al-Malik is the bed of an extinct river in Sudan that is rarely explored by archaeologists, but a recent dig has uncovered an incredible discovery – the world’s oldest ‘place-name sign.’
A team with the University of Bonn deciphered four hieroglyphs carved more than 5,000 years ago on a large stone that read ‘Domain of the Horus King Scorpion.’
What makes this inscription unique is the circular symbol toward the top right that indicates the rock was a marking of a ruler’s territory.
Archaeologists note that such writings in a remote area were unusual for those living in the fourth millennium BC, but it highlights the process of internal colonization in the Nile River.
Egyptologist Prof. Dr Ludwig D. Morenz from the University of Bonn, said: ‘This ruler called ‘Scorpion’ was a prominent figure in the phase of the emergence of the first territorial state in world history.’
A team with the University of Bonn deciphered four hieroglyphs carved more than 5,000 years ago on a large stone that read ‘Domain of the Horus King Scorpion, making it the world’s oldest place name same
Morenz continued to explain that Scorpion lived around 3070BC, but the team has yet to determine the dates and length of his reign.
He told DailyMail.com in an email: ‘Around 3100 there started something completely new in the Nile Valley: the first territorial state (one political power reigning of a territory of more than 800km north-south).’
‘The ‘Scorpion’ I am talking about played an important role in this process (as the first territorial state in world history I think it is of high importance even for our understanding of ‘global history’).’
‘Furthermore, I think that with our findings in Wadi el-Malik we can get a better understanding of the internal socio-economic development of Egypt a bit more than 5000 years ago.’
The name ‘Scorpion’ is written together with three other hieroglyphs on a rock inscription discovered more than two years ago in Wadi Abu Subeira to the east of Aswan.
The team from the University of Boon collaborated with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities when the stone was discovered two years ago, with the hopes of deciphering the ancient drawings.
The name ‘Scorpion’ is written by what looks like the predatory arachnids, along with two other images. But in the top right corner is a circular design that reveals that stone is a place name sign
The name ‘Scorpion’ is written by what looks like the predatory arachnids, along with two other images. But in the top right corner is a circular design that reveals that stone is a place name sign.
‘This is precisely why the new discovery of the rock inscription is so valuable,’ Morenz said.
‘Despite its brevity, the inscription opens a window into the world of the emergence of the Egyptian state and the culture associated with it.’
The researchers explain that Egypt was the first territorial state worldwide. There were already ruling systems elsewhere before, but these were much smaller,’ said Morenz.
The name ‘Scorpion’ is written together with three other hieroglyphs on a rock inscription discovered more than two years ago in Wadi Abu Subeira to the east of Aswan
However, during this time it was popularly known that the north-south extension of Egypt was already nearly 500 miles.
In fact, several rival population centres merged into the new central state,’ says Morenz. Royal estates, known as domains, were founded on the periphery of the empire in order to consolidate the pharaonic empire.’
In addition to various rock carvings, other early rock inscriptions were discovered here and found together with pottery from this period.
‘This area is still in the early stages of archaeological investigation,’ says Morenz. The researchers see this as an opportunity to take a closer look at the momentous process of the world’s first state emergence.
Petrified Forest National Park: Ancient and Spectacular
We’re going to the southwestern state of Arizona on our National Parks trip this week. We’ll find a strange and vivid landscape there. The hilly soil is covered by black, red, and sometimes purple rocks and sand. In odd forms, massive bits of ancient trees curl.
The Jasper Forest section of the park
The area is the only national park that includes a part of the historic U.S. Route 66.
Welcome to the Petrified Forest National Park!
The word “forest” may mislead visitors. The park is in a desert. And the word “petrified” — which can mean “afraid”– may scare visitors away!
But fear not. “Petrified Forest” gets its name from the trees that have, over millions of years, turned to stone. That natural process is called fossilization.
Much of the Petrified Forest formed from tall trees called conifers. They grew over 200 million years ago near waterways. During floods, water forced the trees to be pulled up from the ground. Over time, the wood from the trees became petrified. The Petrified Forest National Park is one of the wonders of Arizona. It sits within the Painted Desert.
A Spanish explorer in the 1500s gave the place its name. It is easy to see why. The desert looks like an artist’s canvas. Brilliantly coloured mudstones and clays cover the land as far as the eye can see. They contain bentonite, a clay that is the product of changed volcanic ash.
The oldest geological formations in the park are about 227 million years old. Differently coloured formations show different time periods. The Blue Mesa formations, for example, have thick bands of grey, purple, blue and green mudstones. They are about 220 million years old.
Ancient history
Evidence of humans in the Petrified Forest dates back 13,000 years.
People first came here after the last Ice Age. Early Paleoindian groups used petrified wood to create different kinds of stone tools. They used them to hunt large animals. The climate warmed over several thousand years. Humans began building villages here and growing food, such as corn, squash and beans.
In the 900s, people in the area began building above-ground houses, called pueblos. They also made pottery for cooking and other uses. Scientists today find evidence of early pottery and pueblo homes all over Petrified Forest National Park. A long and severe drought in the early 1400s forced most of the people living here to move. But new groups soon arrived.
European explorers came in the 1500s. By the 1800s, American pioneers began settling in the area. And, by the 1920s, American motorists were travelling on U.S. Route 66. The road winds through the heart of the Painted Desert.
Long before humans entered the area, though, dinosaurs dominated. Petrified Forest National Park is a world-class area for fossil research. The fossil record at the park preserves some of the earliest dinosaurs. The dinosaur fossils are from the Late Triassic period, called the “dawn of the dinosaurs.” They help scientists reconstruct ancient environments.
Creating a National Park
The land here was set aside as a national monument in 1906. Congress moved to protect it because of its unique ecosystem, a record of human history and dramatic southwestern scenery. It became a national park in 1962.
More than 800,000 people visit the Petrified Forest National Park each year. The best way to explore the park is by foot. The National Park Service maintains many kilometres of walking trails.
The Crystal Forest trail is a one-kilometre path. It is named for the crystals that can be seen on the pieces of petrified wood. The trail is one of the best chances to see this fossilized wood up close.
The Petrified Forest includes many shapes and sizes of wood, from large logs to stumps to the smallest remains of plants. Most of the petrified wood found in the park is made up of quartz. Quartz is a hard, colourless mineral. The wood sometimes shines in the sunlight as if covered by glitter.
The Painted Desert Rim trail offers visitors a good chance to see the park’s wildlife. Lizards and rabbits are common. So are snakes and foxes.
Early morning or evening are the best times to see animals. These are also the times when the sun makes the Painted Desert the most colourful and spectacular.
The discovery of the ruins of a lost city in Sohag, Upper Egypt Province, considering to be more than 7,000 years old has been announced by Egypt.
The Ancient City, found beside a nearby cemetery, dates back to 5,316 BC and is announced as a major archaeological discovery which predates the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt that began about 5 millennia ago.
During an excavation 400 metres south of the mortuary temple of Seti I, a pharaoh who ruled thousands of years later from 1290 to 1279 BC, a team of archaeologists from the Egyptian ministry of antiquities discovered the ruins of ancient huts and tombs.
One of the excavated graves
Seti I’s temple is located in Abydos – one of the oldest known cities of ancient Egypt and the historic capital of Upper Egypt – and the newly found dwellings and graves could be parts of the long-gone capital now resurfaced, or a separate village that was swallowed by it.
“This discovery can shed light on a lot of information on the history of Abydos,” antiquities minister Mahmoud Afifi said in a press statement.
A section of the newly-discovered site with some artifacts found within it.
The recently unearthed structures are thought to have been home to high-ranking officials and grave builders.
In addition to the foundations of ancient huts, the archaeologists found iron tools and pottery, plus 15 giant tombs – the capacious size of which means their intended inhabitants must have been well-established individuals.
“The size of the graves discovered in the cemetery is larger in some instances than royal graves in Abydos dating back to the first dynasty, which proves the importance of the people buried there and their high social standing during this early era of ancient Egyptian history,” the ministry said.
It’s possible that these officials oversaw the construction of royal tombs in nearby Abydos, but the size of their own resting places outside the capital suggests they didn’t want to slum it in eternity either.
Some of the Abydos boats in their brick-built graves.
“About a mile behind where this material is said to be we have the necropolis with royal tombs going from before history to the period where we start getting royal names, we start getting identifiable kings,” Egyptologist Chris Eyre from the University of Liverpool in the UK, who wasn’t involved with the excavation, told the BBC.
“So, this appears to be the town, the capital at the very beginning of Egyptian history.”
According to the researchers, the ancient tools and pottery are the leftover traces of a once giant labour force that was engaged in the considerable feat of constructing these royal tombs – and if you’ve seen the kinds of structures we’re talking about, you’ll understand they had a pretty epic responsibility:
Entrance to the Temple of Seti I.
The nearby cemetery is made up of 15 mastabas, an ancient Egyptian tomb that takes a rectangular shape, made with sloping walls and a flat roof.
According to lead researcher Yasser Mahmoud Hussein, these mastabas are now the oldest such tombs we know about, pre-dating the previous record holders in Saqqara, which served as the necropolis for another ancient Egyptian city, Memphis.
We’ll have to wait for these new findings to be verified by other scientists, but we’re excited to see what new insights further excavations will bring.
Remains of a 7,000-Year-Old Lost City Discovered in Egypt
Massive dinosaur fossil unearthed by Alberta pipeline crew
A new large tyrannosaur from Alberta, a predatory dinosaur whose name means “reaper of death,” was found by palaeontologists from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
The 79-million-year-old fossil, named Thanatotheristes, is the oldest tyrannosaur reported from northern North America and the first new tyrannosaur species found in Canada in 50 years, according to the research team’s report.
“It’s the oldest example of a large tyrannosaur in Canada found in an older window of time than in previous tyrannosaurs,” says Dr Darla Zelenitsky, a co-author of the study, PhD, Principal Dinosaur Researcher of the University of Calgary and Assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience.
Study lead author Jared Voris, shown above, a PhD student of Zelenitsky’s whose analysis identified the new species, says the fossil specimen is very important to understanding the Late Cretaceous period when tyrannosaurs roamed the Earth. It gives us a new understanding of tyrannosaur evolution and how these animals interacted with their ecosystem.
“With this new species, we now know that tyrannosaurs were present in Alberta prior to 77 million years ago, the age of the next-oldest tyrannosaur,” says study co-author Dr. François Therrien, PhD, curator of dinosaur palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. “We can tell from the skull how Thanatotheristes is related to the other, better-known tyrannosaurs from Alberta.”
The research team also included Dr.Caleb Brown, PhD, curator of dinosaur systematics and evolution at the Royal Tyrrell and a co-author of the study.
Thanatotheristes degrootorum is named after John and Sandra De Groot, who found the fossils.
The team’s study, “A New Tyrannosaurine (Theropoda: Tyrannosauridae) from the Campanian Foremost Formation of Alberta, Canada, Provides Insight into the Evolution and Biogeography of Tyrannosaurids,” is published in the peer-reviewed journal Cretaceous Research.
New species have distinct physical features
Thanatotheristes degrootorum, a new genus and species, was identified from a fragmentary fossil consisting of parts of the skull and the upper and lower jawbones. The bones, which had apparently tumbled from a cliff and shattered on the shore of the Bow River, were found by John and Sandra De Groot (after whom the new species was named) in 2010 near the town of Hays, about 200 kilometres southeast of Calgary.
The specimen lay in a drawer at the Royal Tyrrell Museum until last spring, when Voris examined it. “We found features of the skull that had not been seen before in other tyrannosaurs,” he says. “The fossil has several physical features, including ridges along the upper jaw, which clearly distinguishes it as being from a new species.”
The diagnostic evidence showed that Thanatotheristes is a close relative of two other well-known tyrannosaur species, Daspletosaurus torosus and Daspletosaurus horneri. All three species form a newly named group of dinosaurs called Daspletosaurini.
This group had longer, deeper snouts and more teeth in the upper jaws than tyrannosaurs found in the southern U.S., which had shorter, bulldog-like faces, Voris says.
Research indicates diversity among tyrannosaurs
Thanatotheristes, which Voris estimates were approximately eight metres long, likely preyed on large plant-eating dinosaurs, such as the horned Xenoceratops and the dome-headed Colepiochephale that were part of the ecosystem.
The differences in size, skull shape and other physical features among tyrannosaur groups from various geographical regions may be adaptations to different environments, available prey type and hunting strategies, Zelenitsky says.
“Some species are better suited to certain environments,” Voris says. “This reduces competition and gives species a better chance of survival.”
Such “provinciality” can also be seen in modern ecosystems with lions and tigers, he adds. Lions are found in Africa and favour open, savanna-type environments, while tigers are found in Asia and prefer forested environments.
Darla Zelenitsky, Jared Voris and François Therrien stand with the Thanatotheristes fossils.
Royal Tyrrell Museum
The team’s research also suggests tyrannosaurs didn’t share one general body type. Instead, groups of different tyrannosaur species evolved distinct skull forms, body sizes and other physical features, spreading into different environments where each group thrived.
“The next step is to test that hypothesis further and compare how tyrannosaur species from various geological regions differed,” Voris says.
The team’s research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, an Eyes High Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship for Voris, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum Cooperating Society.
Nephilim Giants must have Existed here the Evidence
Nephilim Giants in the distant past have left their big feet impressions all over the world. If you don’t believe this then please explain all these impressive footprints.
Guys that’s not one weirdo fanatic going from one country to another “in the past” with a brass or copper chisel and bringing his freaky fantasies to reality by chiselling the impression of a clown foot just to confuse the future conspiracy theorists lol. These are actual, ancient, massive – the huge footprint of a Giant. I believe that we have discovered the footprint of a Nephilim.
The ancient Nephilim was real, if you really have legitimate doubts about that, then you can please continue to check out this post and you’ll see the impressive collection of photos from around the world of ancient, petrified sediment footprints.
Europeans where absolutely tiny right, even Hobbit-like so how did the early Europeans manage to conquer the entire known world? It’s one hell of a perplexing and wonderfully doomed story of pain suffering and yes, privilege. But only for the few!
So, who were the Nephilim? Just who was these Giants of the ancient ages of mankind and the builders of well, nothing? Their legacy is what?
That’s it, left in these footprints? That’s rubbish. Seriously that’s really crap. If I had massive feet I’d be kicking forest over, kicking something anyways? Probably other Giants.
You can see the indentation of the rock which was caused by the sheer weight of the Giant that made this footprint. It’s not just the footprint itself that’s on the show but it is also the fact that the Giant started to sink into the soft ground which has since solidified and then petrified.
Did you know David and Goliath the Bible story? Well, the giant Goliath is only 6 foot 9 inches. Hardly a giant. But if you look back on ancient history, everyone is small. Everyone is small in stature.
Columbus was said to be a giant but was only 6 foot he was taller than “any” European of the day. You see, humans have always been small unless you look back on the very early different genealogy then you see that different lines have different sizes.
Fun facts:
Shadowhunters, (link here) also known as Nephilim, are a secretive race of beings who are humans born with angel blood, (I honestly have not measured their feet though).
They have fought demons and lived alongside Downworlders in the Shadow World for well over a thousand years, creating their own culture and civilization within human society.
It was a warlock who supposedly summoned the Angel Raziel to create the first of the Nephilim. Although “witch” is generally a term used to refer to mundanes who partake in witchcraft, it is also sometimes used to refer to female warlocks.
But how big were their feet? Well, they were absolutely huge! Check out the photo below… It’s obvious to me and you that this must be more than 20 thousand years old, 30 thousand years maybe? Okay, what about 50 thousand years ago?
The stone here must have originally been flat, but the Earth must have erupted, it’s either slowly moved to its current position or it was thrown there by a tremendous eruption of a volcano?
Then there’s this very unique imprinted footprint of what can only be described as a human footprint! I’m sometimes speechless and on this occasion I am.
A Dinosaur footprint and a human footprint side by side which is definitely unique. But, it also means that everything is wrong with history. Apparently, humans and Dinosaurs didn’t coexist and the fact that these exist means that we’ve caught out the people making up our history. Making it up because if it’s incorrect then it is someone’s interpretation which is “making it up”.
I like to believe in hard evidence which I will always believe as opposed to an educated guess. Evidence always trumps the guess.
The archaeological excavations that happened at Perdigões complex in the Evora District of Portugal recently showed that the archaeological excavations uncovered a “unique structure in the Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula”. In fact, nothing similar has ever been found in Portugal before now.
Only one-third of the circle has been excavated so far, so archaeologists created this projection to give a better sense of its size. The portion that has been excavated is shown on the far left. Archaeologists estimate the circle to be about 66 feet (20 meters) in diameter.
“As described by António Valera, who was the archaeologist in charge of the excavations, the Perdigões structure was a prehistoric ceremonial site found in the middle of a complex of 12 ditch enclosures and “articulates with the visibility of the megalithic landscape that extends between the site and the elevation of Monsaraz, located to the east, on the horizon.
The site was used for religious ceremonies, burials, and rituals as several pits with sacrificial items had been recovered.
People would travel long distances to attend ceremonies and festivals at the location which was a good way for them to socialize and strengthen their bonds with each other.
Woodhenge at North Newnton.
The circular-shaped structure has been nicknamed “Woodhenge” in reference to Stonehenge except this one was made from wood.
“A possible access to the interior of this structure is oriented towards the summer solstice, reinforcing its cosmological character,” Valera explained, adding, “this situation is also known in other European countries as ‘wood henges’ and ‘timber circles’, where astronomical alignment entrances are frequent, underlining the close relationship between these architectures and the Neolithic views of the world .”
It has been described as a “monumental wooden construction, of which the foundations remain, with a circular plan and more than 20 meters in diameter,” Valera noted.
While this “Woodhenge” is the first of its kind to be found in Portugal, it is incredibly similar to other structures found in the central part of Europe and the British Isles – like Stonehenge.
This may indicate that the people of Perdigões were in communication with those living in locations far from them and that those living across Europe were much more connected with each other during the Neolithic period than previously thought.
Woodhenge is the wooden version of Stonehenge.
The complex dates back from around the end of the Middle Neolithic Period (about 3400 BC) to the start of the Bronze Age period (around 2000 BC) – a time frame that lasted approximately 1,400 years.
This time period brings up the possibility that the ancient Bell Beaker culture may have constructed “Woodhenge” as they are believed to have originated in Portugal and their culture thrived from around 3500 BC to 2500 BC.
The timber circles date back 4,500 years.
Valera finished off by stating the importance of finding this structure, “discovery reinforces the already high scientific importance of the Perdigões enclosure complex in the international context of European Neolithic studies while increasing its heritage relevance,” which was recognized as a National Monument in 2019. Several pictures of “Woodhenge” can be seen here.
