EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Archaeologists Discover 3,500-Year-Old “Griffin Warrior” Tomb Full of Treasures

Archaeologists Discover 3,500-Year-Old “Griffin Warrior” Tomb Full of Treasures

Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker, archaeologists in UC’s classics department, found the two beehive-shaped tombs in Pylos, Greece, last year while investigating the area around the grave of an individual they have called the “Griffin Warrior,” a Greek man whose final resting place they discovered nearby in 2015.

Like the Griffin Warrior’s tomb, the princely tombs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea also contained a wealth of cultural artefacts and delicate jewellery that could help historians fill in gaps in our knowledge of early Greek civilization.

The warrior was buried with a bronze sword, ivory combs, gold rings, and seal stones, gemstones carved with images depicting Minoan influences. Although the archaeologists don’t yet know where in Greece the griffin warrior was from, it’s clear from the wealth of objects found in his grave that he held a high station in society, and the particulars of the object are leading archaeologists to revise some accepted theories about Mycenaean Greece.

University of Cincinnati faculty and staff in the Griffin Warrior tomb (click to enlarge)
University of Cincinnati faculty and staff in the Griffin Warrior tomb
Archaeologists Discover 3,500-Year-Old “Griffin Warrior” Tomb Full of Treasures
A detailed ivory comb found at the Pylos dig site

The warrior was buried with a bronze sword, ivory combs, gold rings, and seal stones, gemstones carved with images depicting Minoan influences. Although the archaeologists don’t yet know where in Greece the griffin warrior was from, it’s clear from the wealth of objects found in his grave that he held a high station in society, and the particulars of the object are leading archaeologists to revise some accepted theories about Mycenaean Greece.

The discovery was made near the southwest coast of Greece, close to the Palace of Nestor, which is part of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project. The palace, named for King Nestor of Pylos in Homer’s The Illiad, is one of the best-preserved Bronze Age palaces on the Greek mainland, despite having been nearly destroyed by fire in 1200 BCE. Dr. Sharon Stocker and Dr. Jack W. Davis from the University of Cincinnati have been excavating at Pylos for the past 25 years.

The Palace of Nestor is an incredible source of archaeological information, though it has been more than 75 years since the last discovery of this magnitude: in 1939, Carl Blegen unearthed a number of tablets inscribed with Linear B script, writing that, borrowing heavily from the Minoan Linear A script, became the earliest known form of written Greek.

A gold ring found in the tomb at Pylos featuring Minoan Toreador imagery

Like the Linear B tablets, many of the objects found in the Griffin Warrior’s tomb display Minoan imagery, such as bulls and bull-leaping, a seemingly impossible athletic feat where a person jumps over a charging bull. These images of bull-leapers, also known as Toreadors, are common in Minoan culture and can be seen in many places, such as the stucco frescoes at the Palace of Knossos, The archaeologists have determined that the Griffin Warrior predates the Palace of Nestor, which might point to Mycenaean Greece flourishing earlier than previously thought in Pylos. Mycenaean Greece (1600–1100 BCE), the first advanced culture on the mainland, was a civilization in transition.

After mainland Greece invaded and occupied Minoan Crete around 1420 BCE, Greeks began to adapt, rather than destroy, the more sophisticated Minoan culture. Dr Davis believes that the presence of Minoan imagery on the Griffin Warrior’s artefacts “suggests that contact between Crete and Greece were very close… and that here in Pylos they… were in the process of incorporating Minoan ideas into their own ideology.”

The open shaft grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos

The archaeologists hope to do DNA testing on the Griffin Warrior’s teeth to try to determine his birthplace, which might help explain the meaning and purpose of the Minoan rings and stones in his tomb — e.g., whether these artefacts were personally important to him, aspects of Minoan culture that had been adopted by the Mycenaean people, or had been looted from Crete.

The Griffin Warrior’s discovery and further investigation into his birthplace might lead archaeologists to further reevaluate the history and timeline of Mycenaean Greek culture and its relation to Minoan Crete. This finding has revealed a wealth of new information, but work continues at the Pylos dig site to see how much more can be illuminated about Mycenaean Greece.

AFRICA, ETHIOPIA, WORLD

This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us

This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us

In a fragment of sandstone sticking from the soil in the sparkling flatlands of Northeast Ethiopia, a fossil fragment of the cheekbone has been detected. Zeresenay Alemseged almost instinctively realised that he had come across something important.

This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us
Zeresenay Alemseged holds the skull of a three-year-old Australopithecus afarensis at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The discovery sheds light on the contentious debate about how well the species walked and climbed.

The skinbone brought a jaw, parts of a skull and eventually collar bones, shoulder blades, ribs and — perhaps most important — the most complete spinal column of any early human relative ever found.

Nearly 17 years later, the 3.3-million-year-old fossilized skeleton known as the “Dikika Baby” remains one of the most important discoveries in archaeological history, one that is filling in the timeline of human evolution.

“When you put all the bones together, you have over 60 per cent of a skeleton of a child dating back to 3.3 million years ago, which is more complete than the famous australopithecine fossil known as ‘Lucy,’ ” Alemseged, a 47-year-old professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago, told The Washington Post.

“We never had the chance to recover the face of Lucy, but the Dikika child is an almost complete skeleton, which gives you an impression of how children looked 3.3 million years ago.”

The fossil, also called  “Selam” — “peace” in the Ethiopian Amharic language — has revealed numerous insights into our early human relatives. But Alemseged said one of the most startling findings comes from the toddler’s spine, which had an adaptation for walking upright that had not been seen in such an old skeleton.

The result, he said, is a creature whose upper body was apelike, but whose pelvis, legs and feet had familiar, humanlike adaptations.

“If you had a time machine and saw a group of these early human relatives, what you would have said right away is, ‘What is that chimpanzee doing walking on two legs?’ ” Alemseged said.

The Dikika foot is one part of a partial skeleton of a 3.32 million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis child

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show for the first time the spinal column was humanlike in its numbering and segmentation. Though scientists know that even older species were bipedal, researchers said Selam’s fossilized vertebrae is the only hard evidence of bipedal adaptations in an ancient hominid spine.

“Yes, there were other bipedal species before, but what is making this unique is the preservation of the spine, which simply is unprecedented,” Alemseged said. “Not only is it exquisitely preserved, but it also tells us that the human-type of segmentation emerged at least 3.3 million years ago. Could there have been other species with a similar structure, yes, but we don’t know for sure?”

Human beings share many of the same spinal structures as other primates, but the human spine — which has more vertebrae in the lower back, for example — is adapted for efficient upright motion, such as walking and running on two feet.

Among the larger questions researchers like Alemseged are trying to answer include: When did our ancestors evolve the ability to be bipedal? When did we become more bipedal than arboreal, or tree-dwelling? And when did our ancestors abandon an arboreal lifestyle to become the runners and walkers that eventually populated Africa and then the world?

One of the significant barriers to answering those questions is that complete sets of vertebrae are rarely preserved in the fossil record.

“For many years we have known of fragmentary remains of early fossil species that suggest that the shift from rib-bearing, or thoracic, vertebrae to the lumbar, or lower back, vertebrae were positioned higher in the spinal column than in living humans, but we have not been able to determine how many vertebrae our early ancestors had,” said Carol Ward, a curator’s distinguished professor of pathology and anatomical sciences in the University of Missouri School of Medicine, and lead author on the study.

“Selam has provided us the first glimpse into how our early ancestors’ spines were organized.” Unpacking the intricacies of Selam’s spinal structure would not have been possible without the assistance of cutting-edge technology, researchers said.

After 13 years of using dental tools to painstakingly remove portions of the fossil from sandstone — which risked destroying the fossil — Alemseged packed up Selam in his suitcase and took the fossil from Ethiopia to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, in 2010. Alemseged and the research team spent nearly two weeks there using high-resolution imaging technology to visualize the bones.

Left block of images shows the 3.32 million-year-old foot from an Australopithecus afarensis toddler from different angles. The right block of images compares the child’s foot with the fossil remains of an adult Australopithecus foot (top).

The fossil had undergone a medical CT scan in 2002 in Nairobi, Alemseged said, but that scanner was unable to distinguish objects with the same density, meaning that penetrating bones encased in sandstone was impossible. Once in France, that was no longer a problem, and the results, he said, “were mind-blowing.”

“We were able to separate, virtually, the different elements of the vertebrae and were able to do it, of course, without any damage to the fossil,” Alemseged said. “We are now able to see this very detailed anatomy of the vertebrae of this exceptionally preserved fossil.”

The scans revealed that the child possessed the thoracic-to-lumbar joint transition found in other fossil human relatives, but they also showed that Selam had a smaller number of vertebrae and ribs than most apes have.

For researchers, the skeleton is a window into the transition between rib-bearing vertebrae and lower back vertebrae, which allowed our early human ancestors to extend at the waist and begin moving upright, eventually becoming highly efficient walkers and runners. Though he has been studying Selam for nearly two decades, Alemseged thinks the fossil has more secrets to share with the modern world.

“I don’t think she will stop surprising us as the analysis continues,” he said. “Science and tech are evolving so much that I’m sure in a few years we’ll be able to extract even more information that we’re not able to extract today.”

GUATEMALA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Impressive Water Purification System Found at Ancient Maya City

Impressive Water Purification System Found at Ancient Maya City

For fundamental human life, water is necessary. Yet polluted water can also spread lethal viruses that can kill whole communities. Safe, clean water offers humanity one of its best chances to thrive.

Many ancient cultures purified their rivers, including the Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. Water treatment methods are also mentioned in Sanskrit texts dating from 2,000 BCE. Now, archaeologists have also discovered the Mayan of South America – and their water filtration mechanism was amazingly effective.

In a reservoir in what was once the major Maya city of Tikal, the ruins of which crumble in a rainforest in present-day Guatemala, archaeologists have found zeolite and quartz – minerals that are not local to the area, and which are both effective at helping remove contaminants such as microbes, heavy metals, and nitrogen compounds from water.

So effective, in fact, that they are both used in water filtration systems today.

“What’s interesting is this system would still be effective today, and the Maya discovered it more than 2,000 years ago,” said anthropologist Kenneth Barnett Tankersley of the University of Cincinnati.

Zeolite, in particular, is interesting. It’s a natural crystalline compound of silicon and aluminium, linked via shared oxygen atoms to form an open crystal lattice. It has excellent absorption and ion exchange properties, which makes it very effective at filtering water.

But, although the ancient Greeks and Romans used it as a pozzolan – an ingredient for cement – in aquatic structures such as bridges and aqueducts, archaeologists thought that zeolite hadn’t been used for water filtration until around the beginning of the 20th century.

“The apparent zeolite filtration system at Tikal’s Corriental reservoir is the oldest known example of water purification in the Western Hemisphere,” the authors wrote, “and the oldest known use of zeolite for decontaminating drinking water in the world.”

The ability to have clean water was of deep importance to the Maya, and of great concern, particularly to Tikal. The city’s only water source was 10 reservoirs. Given the large population, and the highly variable climate that went through periods of seasonal drought, their drinking water was prone to contamination from both microbes and cinnabar, or mercury sulfide, a pigment the Maya used heavily.

It stands to reason that they had some means of keeping the water clean. So Tankersley and his team went to investigate. They studied three of the largest reservoirs in the ancient city, as well as a local sinkhole as a control for mineral composition.

The discovery was made in the Corriental reservoir, an important source of drinking water for the residents of Tikal, and one of the largest drinking water reservoirs in use by the Maya for over a thousand years. Mixed in among the sediment at the bottom of the reservoir, the team found what they were looking for: zeolite and coarse quartz sand.

The zeolite was found only in the Corriental reservoir. There’s no way it could have just happened to be there when the reservoir was dug.

In fact, the team believes that the mineral was quarried from a site some 30 kilometres (18 miles) northeast of Tikal. There, volcanic rock forms an aquifer known to produce exceptionally clear water. University of Cincinnati geographer Nicholas Dunning was familiar with the area after previously conducting fieldwork there.

“It was an exposed, weathered volcanic tuff of quartz grains and zeolite. It was bleeding water at a good rate,” Dunning said. “Workers refilled their water bottles with it. It was locally famous for how clean and sweet the water was.”

The team compared the Corriental quartz and zeolite from material taken from the aquifer and found that the two were a very close match. They also used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the sediment and dated it to between 2,185 and 965 years ago.

It’s impossible to know exactly how the filtration system worked, but putting together the evidence, the team believes that it has a pretty good picture.

“The filtration system was likely held behind dry-laid stone walls with the zeolites and macrocrystalline sand-sized quartz crystals further constrained with woven petate (woven reed or palm fibre matting) or other perishable porous material positioned just upstream of, or within the reservoir ingresses, which were periodically ejected into the reservoir during flash floods caused by tropical cyclones,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

And it seems to have worked. Mercury deposits, likely from cinnabar contamination, had previously been found in several other Tikal reservoirs. Not a trace of it could be detected in Corriental.

“The ancient Maya lived in a tropical environment and had to be innovators. This is a remarkable innovation,” Tankersley said.

“A lot of people look at Native Americans in the Western Hemisphere as not having the same engineering or technological muscle of places like Greece, Rome, India, or China. But when it comes to water management, the Maya were millennia ahead.”

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists find Rome-era tombs in Egypt’s the Western Desert

Archaeologists find Rome-era tombs in Egypt’s the Western Desert

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered two ancient tombs dating back to the Roman period in the country’s the Western Desert. The team discovered structures of two different architectural styles at the Beir Al-Shaghala site in the Dakhla Oasis, though both were built from mud-brick.

Archaeologists find Rome-era tombs in Egypt's the Western Desert
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered two ancient tombs dating back to the Roman period in the country’s Western Desert. Colorful funeral paintings in one of the ancient tombs is shown above

Inside the colourfully-painted tombs, they also found several human skeletons, clay lamps, and a number of pottery vessels. Each of the tombs is decorated in vibrant funeral paintings, though much of the artwork has been lost to time.

According to Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, the paintings once illustrated the process of mummifying the deceased.

Archaeologists have been excavating the site since 2002 over the course of five archaeological seasons.

Overall, they’ve discovered more than 10 incomplete sandstone tombs at the site.

The latest finds include one sandstone tomb with a 20-step staircase and a mud-brick tomb located on the east side of the first.

In recent years, Egypt has heavily promoted new archaeological finds to international media and diplomats in the hope of attracting more visitors to the country.

The vital tourism sector has suffered from the years of political turmoil since the 2011 uprising.

The latest finds include one sandstone tomb with a 20-step staircase and a mud-brick tomb located on the east side of the first

Archaeologists revealed another Roman-era discovery earlier this month from the Egyptian west coast.

Recent excavations uncovered the ruins of a sprawling Hellenistic fortress constructed more than 2,000 years ago.

Researchers say the ancient fortress was built to defend a port on the Red Sea coast, with three large courtyards and numerous structures that housed workshops and stores.

Inside, the team also found trash heaps filled with terracotta figures, coins, and even a fragment of an elephant skull.

The ruins of the Roman city, called Berenike Trogodytika, were first discovered in 1818, though it wasn’t until 2012 that excavations finally began.

Work at the site uncovered a ‘multi-phased’ building measuring about 160 meters long and 80 meters wide.

The team also found a line of defences along the north and north-east side.

According to the researchers, the findings at Berenike represent the first known Hellenistic urban site in the region.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Pit of Amputated arms in France from 6,000 years ago suggest war and trophy taking

Pit of Amputated arms in France from 6,000 years ago suggest war and trophy taking

6,000 years ago, a circular pit with the bodies of seven people on a bed with seven arms sheds fresh light on violent disputes. Experts claim the gruesome discovery tells the tale of a devastating raid on a settlement in eastern France that may have wiped out an entire family.

Bloodthirsty attackers will also take arms as war trophies and tortured the victims before burying their bodies.

The 6.5ft (two metres) deep circular pit was found in Bergheim by archaeologists from Antea Archéologie in Habsheim and the universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux. 

A circular pit, bearing the skeletons of seven people placed on a bed of severed arms (pictured), is shedding new light on violent conflicts of 6,000 years ago. The 6.5ft (two metres) deep circular pit was found in Bergheim by archaeologists from Antea Archéologie in Habsheim and the universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux
A circular pit, bearing the skeletons of seven people placed on a bed of severed arms (pictured), is shedding new light on violent conflicts of 6,000 years ago. The 6.5ft (two metres) deep circular pit was found in Bergheim by archaeologists from Antea Archéologie in Habsheim and the universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux

It contains seven human skeletons and part of a child’s skull on top of the remains of seven amputated human arms. The find, dubbed Pit 157, measures almost 5ft (1.5 metres) in diameter at the base and 6.2ft (1.9 metres) in diameter at its top.

The experts believe two men, one woman and four children were killed in a raid or some sort of violent encounter.  Their bodies were thrown in the pit on top of a pile of left arms, thought to have been fractured then hacked off using hand axes.

Scattered hand bones on the bottom layer suggest hands from severed limbs were chopped into pieces. Study author Fanny Chenal of Inrap told Gizmodo: ‘For a long time, Neolithic societies were considered relatively egalitarian and peaceful. 

‘But for several years a lot of research has shown that it was not the case.’

In fact, she thinks the war was common in Neolithic times and while there is no clear evidence of this in France, there is evidence in Germany from the same time. It is not clear to whom the arms belong, since the skeletons on top of them have both their arms, apart from the remains of one male.

As well as missing his arm, which may or may not be in the pit, his skull shows signs of violence that likely resulted in his death. The researchers are unsure whether the burial suggests some sort of macabre post-battle ritual. 

A Neolithic axe from France
The gruesome find seemingly tells the tale of a devastating raid that may have wiped out an entire family. This graphic shows the jumble of skeletons, shown in different colours to differentiate them. Carbon dating shows the bones are between 5,500 and 6,000 years old

They are also unsure why the attackers targeted people’s left arms, however, they hypothesise the limbs may have been hacked off as war trophies. Dr Chanal said the arms were buried with the remains but think they are from the same social group.

‘Pit 157 represents clear evidence of what was probably an act of inter-group armed violence, that is to say, “war,” although the true nature of these practices remains difficult to understand,’ explained the study. 

Carbon dating shows the bones are between 5,500 and 6,000 years old. At this time, it was common for bodies to be buried in circular pits among farming communities across central and Western Europe.

But the unusual Bergheim grave is the first evidence that those butchered in raids were buried in the same way. Dr Chenal added: ‘It’s a very important result, but it raises more questions than it answers.’

There is already debate about whether such circular pits were remnants of storage pits and repurposed for people not deemed worthy of a grander burial, or were used for high-ranking people.

The bodies were thrown in the pit on top of a pile of left arms thought to have been fractured then hacked off using hand axes. This image from the journal Antiquity shows notches from an attack on the arm bones
Pit of Amputated arms in France from 6,000 years ago suggest war and trophy taking
Scattered hand bones on the bottom layer suggest hands from severed limbs were chopped into pieces. These images shown the severed arm bones at the bottom of the pit, with the other skeletons removed

Some pits containing the remains of several people suggest slaves or relatives were killed to be buried with an important person, and there are even theories saying circular pits were used for human sacrifices.

But the study explained: ‘The evidence from pit 157 undoubtedly testifies to armed violence, and the amputated arms, most probably trophies, are suggestive of an act of war. 

‘The presence of women and children in the pit does not go against this hypothesis: They may have been victims of raids, killed on the scene of the confrontation or captured and executed afterwards – although women and children were often enslaved, they were also sometimes tortured and killed.

‘Whether they were victims of warfare or the recipients of judicial punishment, the case supports the idea that the haphazardly deposited individuals were either dependants or excluded individuals.’

Of the 60 pits uncovered in Bergheim, 14 contained human bones and only one, described in the study published in the journal Antiquity, showed signs of violence or limb loss. It is possible the victims were either tortured, or their limbs were amputated after death to intimidate the living or offend the dead – a practice documented in Florida in the 16th century, which seems to echo that of the Bergheim burial. 

‘The evidence from this site challenges the simplicity of existing interpretations, and demands a more critical focus on the archaeological evidence for acts of systematic violence during this period,’ the study concluded.

It is not clear to whom the arms belong, since the skeletons on top of them have both their arms, apart from one man whose skull also shows signs of violence (shown above) that likely resulted in his death. A child’s skullcap was also found on top of the pile of bones, plus the remains of a separate female
The researchers said it is possible the victims were either tortured, or their limbs were amputated after death to intimidate the living, or offend the dead. This practice, documented in Florida in the 16th century (illustrated), which seems to echo that of the Bergheim burial
ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Tomb of Duke Jing of Qi and his 600 Sacrificial Horses found by Archaeologists

Tomb of Duke Jing of Qi and his 600 Sacrificial Horses found by Archaeologists

A surprising find was made in China in 1964: a tomb holding the bodies of hundreds of horses, perfectly organised in rows. Such a complex burial and large sacrifice clearly indicated that the tomb belonged to a person who held a high place in society.

It was soon found that the tomb belonged to Duke Jing of Qi and that the horse remains were, sadly, a sacrifice made in his honour.

Now excavations have resumed at the ancient sacrificial pit and archaeologists are hoping to learn more secrets about the burial, history, and scale of the army in the pre-Qin period.

Duke Jing, Son of a Concubine

From 547 to 490 BC the State of Qi was ruled by Duke Jing of Qi. Duke Jing was given the name Lü Chujiu at birth, and his ancestral name was Jiang. Duke Jing was a title he earned after his death.

The Duke was born to a concubine of Duke Ling of Qi and had an older half-brother named Duke Zhuang. Their father died in 554 BC and was succeeded by Duke Zhuang.

Cui Zhu, a powerful minister, supported Duke Zhuang until Duke Zhuang had an affair with Cui Zhu’s wife. As a result, Chi Zhu killed Duke Zhuang in 548 BC. Upon his brother’s death, Duke Jing took to the throne. With Duke Jing on the throne, Cui Zhu and nobleman Qing Feng took control of the state as co-prime ministers.

After much turmoil in the State of Qi caused by unrest between Cui Zhi and Qing Feng, Duke Jing appointed Yan Ying as prime minister, and thus began a period of peace and prosperity for the State of Qi.

Artist’s depiction of Duke Jing of Qi with Confucius

Duke’s Death Leads to Coup

Duke Jing was married to Princess Yan Ji from the State of Yan. Their son became the crown prince of Qi, although he died during Duke Jing’s reign. Duke Jing had at least five other grown sons – possibly more – but he chose his youngest son, Prince Tu, as the new crown prince.

Prince Tu was born to a mother of low status, and he was still a young boy when named crown prince. To ensure his support, Duke Jing ordered the ministers of the Guo and Gao clans to support Prince Tu.

The Duke’s other sons were exiled to the remote city of Lai. Soon thereafter, Duke Jing died, in 490 BC. Although Prince Tu was installed on the throne, several clans staged a coup d’etat, and Duke Jing’s son Prince Yangsheng was brought back to take over the throne. He killed Prince Tu and became known as  Duke Dao of Qi.

The Sacrificial Horse Pit of Jing’s Tomb

Duke Jing of Qi was buried at Yatou in Linzi District of Zibo, Shandong Province. On the northern side of the tomb, archaeologists discovered the sacrificial burial of 145 horses in a pit measuring 215 meters long and surrounding three sides of the tomb.

Tomb of Duke Jing of Qi and his 600 Sacrificial Horses found by Archaeologists
The Tomb of Duke Jing of Qi and his 600 Horses

Several years later, another 106 horse skeletons were found at the tomb, raising the total to 251. The horses are believed to have been young, between 5 – 7 years old when sacrificed.

The horses are believed to have been given alcohol until they became unconscious, and then struck upon the head.

Excavations were halted in 2003 due to inadequate preparations, but archaeologists at the time estimated that there may be up to 600 more horses buried in Duke Jing’s honour, along with 30 dogs, two pigs, and six other domesticated animals. While other sacrificial horse remains have been discovered in China, this is by far the largest.

The perimeter of horses indicates the horses found in the area excavated. However, archaeologists estimated there are many more to be found, totalling around 600

New Excavations Launched

After a 16-year pause, excavations at the tomb of Duke Jing have now resumed and experts will finally be able to confirm the number of horses buried there. 

Xinhua News Agency revealed that over 3,000 cultural relics were unearthed during the initial excavations, and more are expected to be found over the next 8 months as archaeologists resume explorations. 

The site of the Tomb of Duke Jing of Qi now houses a museum and is a National Historical and Cultural Site. It is under consideration to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The horse remains are an incredible find, as it is difficult to imagine the complexities of a sacrifice of such a large magnitude. According to historical records, Duke Jing was infatuated with horses, which shows that this sacrifice was made as a gesture of great honour towards the fallen king.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Egypt finds 59 ancient coffins buried more than 2,600 years ago

Egypt finds 59 ancient coffins buried more than 2,600 years ago

The Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities said on Saturday, dozens of ancient coffins were discovered by archaeologists in a large Necropolis south of Cairo.

Khalid el-Anany, Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minister, right, and Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the country’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, left, stand over a sarcophagus at the Saqqara archaeological site, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020. El-Anany says at least 59 sealed sarcophagi with mummies inside were found in three wells at the vast necropolis, believed to have been buried there more than 2,600 years ago.

Khalid el-Anany said that 59 sealed sarcophagi, most of them mummies, have been discovered to have buried more than 2,600 years ago in three wells.

“I consider this is the beginning of a big discovery,” el-Anany said, adding that there is an unknown number of coffins that have yet to be unearthed in the same area.

He spoke at a news conference at the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara where the coffins were found.

The sarcophagi have been displayed and one of them was opened before reporters to show the mummy inside. Several foreign diplomats attended the announcement ceremony.

A sarcophagus that is around 2500 years old is shown at the Saqqara archaeological site, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020.

The Saqqara plateau hosts at least 11 pyramids, including the Step Pyramid, along with hundreds of tombs of ancient officials and other sites that range from the 1st Dynasty (2920 B.C.-2770 B.C.) to the Coptic period (395-642).

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said initial studies show that the decorated coffins were made for priests, top officials and elites from the Pharaonic Late Period (664-525 B.C.).

He said archaeologists also found a total of 28 statuettes of Ptah-Soker the main god of the Saqqara necropolis, and a beautifully carved 35 cm tall bronze statuette of god Nefertum, inlaid with precious stones. The name of its owner, Priest Badi-Amun, is written on its base, he said.

Egyptian antiquities officials had announced the discovery of the first batch coffins last month when archaeologists found 13 of the containers in a newly discovered 11 meter-deep (36 feet) well.

One of the discovered tombs at the Saqqara archaeological site is shown, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020.

The Saqqara site is part of the necropolis of Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids, as well as smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis have designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 1970s.

El-Anany said the Saqqara coffins would join 30 ancient wooden coffins that were discovered in October in the southern city of Luxor and will be showcased at the new Grand Egyptian Museum, which Egypt is building near the Giza Pyramids.

The Saqqara discovery is the latest in a series of archaeological finds that Egypt has sought to publicize in an effort to revive its key tourism sector, which was badly hit by the turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising. The sector was also dealt a further blow this year by the global coronavirus pandemic.

EUROPE, WORLD

Code is hidden in Stone Age Art Maybe the Root of Human Writing

Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing

A Recent Scientist article by Alison George – Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing – reports on the painstaking investigation of Europe’s cave art which has revealed 32 shapes and lines that crop up again and again and could be the world’s oldest code.

‘When she first saw the necklace, Genevieve von Petzinger feared the trip halfway around the globe to the French village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac had been in vain.

The dozens of ancient deer teeth laid out before her, each one pierced like a bead, looked roughly the same. It was only when she flipped one over that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. On the reverse were three etched symbols: a line, an X and another line.

Von Petzinger, a palaeoanthropologist from the University of Victoria in Canada is spearheading an unusual study of cave art. Her interest lies not in the breathtaking paintings of bulls, horses and bison that usually spring to mind, but in the smaller, geometric symbols frequently found alongside them.

Her work has convinced her that far from being random doodles, the simple shapes represent a fundamental shift in our ancestors’ mental skills.

Black tectiforms at Las Chimeneas, Spain

The claviform symbol appears in the Magdalenian caves of France & Spain. There are 15 claviform symbols in Niaux alone. 

The first formal writing system that we know of is the 5000-year-old cuneiform script of the ancient city of Uruk in what is now Iraq. But it and other systems like it – such as Egyptian hieroglyphs – are complex and didn’t emerge from a vacuum.

There must have been an earlier time when people first started playing with simple abstract signs. For years, von Petzinger has wondered if the circles, triangles and squiggles that humans began leaving on cave walls 40,000 years ago represent that special time in our history – the creation of the first human code.’

Between 2013 and 2016, von Petzinger visited 52 caves in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. The symbols she found ranged from dots, lines, triangles, squares and zigzags to more complex forms like ladder shapes, hand stencils, tectiforms and penniforms. Her most startling finding was how few signs there were – just 32 in all of Europe. There was consistency in the use of symbols.

At El Castillo in Spain, a black penniform and bell-shapes

With von Petzinger’s database, she can now see trends – signs in regions, new signs appearing, other signs disappearing. In other words, cultural changes can be discerned, pointing at migration and trade routes.

Further research: some of the most stunning cave art in Europe was only discovered in 1985 when divers found the mouth of the Cosquer cave 37 metres below the Mediterranean coastline near Marseilles in southern France.

Its entrance had been submerged as sea levels rose after the last ice age. What other similar caves are waiting to be discovered? With this in mind, von Petzinger has teamed up with David Lang of OpenROV in Berkeley, California, which makes low-cost underwater robots.

Next year, they plan to use them to hunt for submerged cave entrances off Spain’s north coast. The region is rich in painted caves, many close to the shoreline, so it seems likely that others could be hiding below the waves. If they find any, the pair will send in the remote-controlled mini-submarines, armed with cameras, to safely explore the new sites.

Moreover, as well as the symbols painted, drawn and engraved onto the cave walls, von Petzinger plans to expand her ‘Stone Age dictionary’ by analysing the wealth of signs on portable objects, such as the etched deer teeth from Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière in France.

Etched deer teeth from Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière, France

The article describes how the research has allowed her to consider the meanings of the symbols, and possibly the origins of writing systems.

Von Petzinger believes the invention of the first code represents a complete shift in how our ancestors shared information. For the first time, they no longer had to be in the same place at the same time to communicate with each other, and information could survive its owners.

All In One Magazine