Analysis of ancient Scythian leather samples shows two were made from human skin
A selection of the leather object fragments analyzed in this study: 1. Ilyinka kurgan 4 burial 2; 2. Ilyinka kurgan 4 burial 3; 3. Vodoslavka kurgan 8 burial 4; 4. Orikhove kurgan 3 burial 2; 5. Zelene I kurgan 2 burial 3; 6. Kairy V kurgan 1 burial 1; 7. Ol’hyne kurgan 2 burial 1; 8. Bulhakovo kurgan 5 burial 2; 9. Zolota Balka kurgan 13 burial 7 (Image: M. Daragan). The units of the scale bars are cm.
A multi-institutional team of anthropologists has discovered that two pieces of ancient Scythian leather excavated at sites in Ukraine were made from human skin. In their project, reported on the open-access site PLOS ONE, the group tested an account by the Greek historian Herodotus regarding certain behaviors of ancient Scythian warriors.
Prior research has found that an ancient group of people known as the Scythians lived in what is now the Pontic-Caspian steppe from approximately 700 BCE to 300 BCE.
Because they were itinerant people, not much is known about them beyond their reputation as fierce warriors and excellent equestrians.
They were known to the ancient Greeks, though—famed historian Herodotus mentioned them in his writings. He said they were known to drink the blood of their slain enemies and sometimes used their scalps as a means for wiping the blood from their hands.
He suggested that there had also been reports of them removing the skin from the right hand of an enemy and using it to make leather for their quivers. In this new effort, the research team looked for evidence of this last claim.
The researchers used a variety of paleoproteomics techniques to analyze 45 leather samples collected from 14 Scythian dig sites.
They were able to identify the source of all of them—all but two were made from horse, cattle, goat or sheep skin. The other two had a human source, confirming what Herodotus had written.
Further study of the two human skin leather samples suggested that they were crafted onto just the top parts of quivers; the remainder of the quivers were made from animal leather.
The researchers suggest their findings not only confirm stories about the ancient Scythian warriors, but also that the warriors were creating their own quivers and were using material readily at hand.
A Corinthian helmet and marble statue of Aphrodite are among 30 artifacts repatriated by the United States to Greece during a ceremony on December 15.
A Corinthian helmet and marble statue of Aphrodite are among 30 artifacts repatriated by the United States to Greece during a ceremony Friday.
The antiquities—which also include breastplates, a Byzantine silver plate, and a bronze chariot attachment—were recovered by Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Collectively, the pieces are valued at $3.7 million. Bragg said in a statement that 19 of the pieces were voluntarily surrendered by New York gallery owner Michael Ward and three were seized from British art dealer Robin Symes.
A source familiar with the case said that the remaining eight items are in the possession of investigators, who know that the items were stolen, but have not yet specified where, how, or by whom they were stolen or recovered from.
“A nation’s cherished history should never be pilfered, peddled, or marketed for sale, yet for years these antiquities were kept in collectors’ homes, prestigious institutions, and even storage lockers,” said Erin Keegan, the HSI acting special agent in charge in New York.
“Cultural heritage is an integral part of our identity as people and nations. It is therefore essential and nowadays crucial to protect and preserve cultural heritage for future generations,” Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said in a statement.
Ambassador Dinos Konstantinou, the consul general of Greece in New York, called the artifacts “fabulous” and “stunningly preserved.”
“Their monetary value amounts to millions of dollars but their actual value goes far beyond that,” Konstantinou said. “They are priceless for the Greek people.”
Medieval Lead Token Recovered at England’s Oxburgh Hall
One side of the ‘boy bishop’ token found at the Oxburgh estate in Norfolk depicts a long cross.
They are the last resort for the most challenging of recipients, such as moody teenagers or the eccentric uncle you see once a year – but gift tokens also came in handy at Christmas in medieval times.
National Trust archaeologists have discovered a token dating from between 1470 and 1560 that was probably given by the church to poor people to be exchanged for food.
It was found near Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, having probably originated at Bury St Edmunds Abbey, nearly 30 miles away in Suffolk.
One side of the token is very corroded, but would probably have shown the head of a bishop. The other side is well-preserved, depicting a long cross.
The token may have been doled out by a choirboy acting as the “boy bishop” during the Christmas period. In medieval and early Tudor times, on the feast day of St Nicholas – 6 December – cathedrals chose a choirboy to parody the bishop, leading some religious services and processions, and collecting money for the church.
Boy bishops also gave out tokens to poor people which could be spent between St Nicholas Day and Holy Innocents Day on 28 December.
A 16th-century depiction of a ‘boy bishop’.
Angus Wainwright, an archaeologist with the National Trust, said: “The token is not a thing of particular beauty, but it does have an interesting story. It was found by one of our metal detectorists who had been doing a survey of the West Park field at Oxburgh as part of our parkland restoration and tree planting.”
The trust’s efforts to find out more about the field’s history had yielded “fantastic” results, he said, “revealing not only part of a medieval village including horseshoes, handmade nails and tools but also part of a Roman village. This token most likely comes from Bury St Edmunds Abbey which was one of the biggest and richest in the country, St Edmund being one of the patron saints of England.
“Although tokens could be spent in the local town they may also have been kept as keepsakes, but the one we have found could also simply have been dropped and lost.”
The token was found in a field on the estate around Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk.
The tokens, made of lead, came in equivalent sizes to a penny, halfpenny and groat (worth four pennies). The one found at Oxburgh is the size of a groat.
“We believe that one of the inhabitants from Oxborough village must have made the long trip to Bury St Edmunds, around 27 miles, to see the festive ceremonies in the massive Abbey Church where they may have acquired the token. As one of the biggest buildings in western Europe this must have been a mind-blowing experience for someone from a tiny village,” said Wainwright.
“This discovery shows how rich the cultural life of even the poorest folk could be in the middle ages. It’s also interesting that the Christmas period was a time for fun and celebration aimed at children, with a child taking on the role of the bishop, and St Nicholas as patron saint of children.”
Saints’ days gradually disappeared after the Reformation in the 16th century, including that of St Nicholas. Old Father Christmas was invented as a spirit of the season, but the name St Nicholas eventually became Santa Claus.
Oxburgh Hall was built by the Bedingfeld family in 1482 as a statement of power and prestige. The family suffered generations of persecution for their Catholic faith.
2,000-Year-Old Skeleton of Sarmatian Man Identified in England
DNA analysis showed that this young man travelled to Cambridgeshire from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago
How did a young man born 2,000 years ago near what is now southern Russia, end up in the English countryside?
DNA sleuths have retraced his steps while shedding light on a key episode in the history of Roman Britain. Research shows that the skeleton found in Cambridgeshire is of a man from a nomadic group known as Sarmatians. It is the first biological proof that these people came to Britain from the furthest reaches of the Roman empire and that some lived in the countryside.
The remains were discovered during excavations to improve the A14 road between Cambridge and Huntingdon. The scientific techniques used will help reveal the usually untold stories of ordinary people behind great historical events.
They include reading the genetic code in fossilised bone fragments that are hundreds of thousands of years old, which shows an individual’s ethnic origin.
Dr Marina Silva extracted the ancient DNA and then made sense of its genetic code
Archaeologists discovered a complete, well-preserved skeleton of a man, they named Offord Cluny 203645 – a combination of the Cambridgeshire village he was found in and his specimen number. He was buried by himself without any personal possessions in a ditch, so there was little to go on to establish his identity.
Dr Marina Silva of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute, in London, extracted and decoded Offord’s ancient DNA from a tiny bone taken from his inner ear, which was the best preserved part of the entire skeleton.
“This is not like testing the DNA of someone who is alive,” she explained.
“The DNA is very fragmented and damaged. However, we were able to (decode) enough of it.
“The first thing we saw was that genetically he was very different to the other Romano-British individuals studied so far.”
The latest ancient DNA analysis methods are now able to flesh out the human stories behind events that, until recently, have been reconstructed only by documents and archaeological evidence.
These largely tell the tales of the wealthy and powerful.
The latest research is a detective story which uses cutting edge forensic science to unravel the mystery of an ordinary person – a young man buried in a ditch in Cambridgeshire between 126 and 228 AD, during the Roman occupation of Britain.
At first, archaeologists thought Offord to be an unremarkable discovery of a local man. But DNA analysis at Dr Silva’s lab showed that he was from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire, an area that is currently southern Russia, Armenia, and Ukraine. The analysis showed him to be a Sarmatian, who are Iranian-speaking people, renowned for their horse-riding skills.
So how did he end up in a sleepy backwater of the empire so far from home?
To find the answers, a team from the archaeology department of Durham University used another exciting analysis technique to examine his fossilised teeth, which have chemical traces of what he ate.
Analysis of his teeth showed that his diet had gradually changed since the age of five
Teeth develop over time, so just like tree rings, each layer records a snapshot of the chemicals that surrounded them at that moment in time. The analysis showed that until the age of six he ate millets and sorghum grains, known scientifically as C4 crops, which are plentiful in the region where Sarmatians were known to have lived.
But over time, analysis showed a gradual decrease in his consumption of these grains and more wheat, found in western Europe, according to Prof Janet Montgomery.
“The (analysis) tells us that he, and not his ancestors, made the journey to Britain. As he grew up, he migrated west, and these plants disappeared from his diet.”
A scene depicting the defeat of the Sarmatian army by Roman forces in 175 AD
Historical records indicate that Offord could have been a cavalry man’s son, or possibly his slave. They show that around the time he lived, a unit of the Sarmatian cavalry incorporated into the Roman army was posted to Britain.
The DNA evidence confirms this picture, according to Dr Alex Smith of MOLA Headland Infrastructure, the company that led the excavation.
“This is the first biological evidence,” he told BBC News.
“The availability of these DNA and chemical analysis techniques means that we can now ask different questions and look at how societies formed, their make-up and how they evolved in the Roman period.
“It suggests that there was much greater movement, not just in the cities but also the countryside.”
The remains were discovered as part of excavations undertaken as part of the A14 road improvement scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon
Dr Pontus Skoglund, who heads the ancient genomics laboratory at the Crick, told BBC News that the new technology is transforming our understanding of the past.
“The main impact of ancient DNA to date has been improving our understanding of the Stone and Bronze Ages, but with better techniques, we are also starting to transform our understanding of the Roman and later periods.”
The details have been published in the journal, Current Biology.
A medieval ‘curse tablet’ summoning Satan was discovered at the bottom of a latrine in Germany
The rolled-up piece of lead contains inscriptions that are barely visible to the naked eye.
Archaeologists in Germany have discovered a rolled-up piece of lead that they think could be a medieval “curse tablet” that invokes “Beelzebub,” or Satan.
Upon first glance, the researchers thought the “inconspicuous piece of metal” was simply scrap, since it was found at the bottom of a latrine at a construction site in Rostock, a city in northern Germany, according to a translated statement.
However, once they unfurled it, archaeologists realized that the 15th-century artifact contained a cryptic message etched in Gothic minuscule that was barely visible to the naked eye. It read, “sathanas taleke belzebuk hinrik berith.”
Researchers deciphered the text as a curse that was directed toward a woman named Taleke and a man named Hinrik (Heinrich) and summoned Beelzebub (another name for Satan) and Berith (a demonic spirit).
While researchers may never know who these people were, they did offer some ideas for the reasoning behind the bad blood.
“Did someone want to break up Taleke and Heinrich’s relationship? Was this about spurned love and jealousy, should someone be put out of the way?” the researchers asked in the statement.
Archaeologists said the finding was unique, especially since similar “curse tablets are actually known from ancient times in the Greek and Roman regions from 800 B.C. to A.D. 600,” Jörg Ansorge, an archaeologist with the University of Greifswald in Germany who led the excavation, said in the statement.
For instance, a 1,500-year-old lead tablet inscribed in Greek and found in what is now Israel calls on demons to harm a rival dancer, while 2,400-year-old tablets found in Greece ask the underworld gods to target several tavern keepers.
“Our discovery, on the other hand, can be dated to the 15th century,” Ansorge said. “This is truly a very special find.”
Researchers weren’t surprised to find the artifact at the bottom of a latrine, considering that curse tablets “were placed where they were difficult or impossible to find” by those who have been cursed, according to the statement.
Lost ‘Woolly Dog’ Genetics Highlight Indigenous Science
“Woolly dogs” that were kept by the Coast Salish peoples are now extinct, but researchers were able to see their importance written in the genome of the only known pelt.
Full-body forensic reconstruction of a woolly dog based on a 160-year-old pelt in the Smithsonian’s collection as well as archaeological remains. The reconstructed woolly dog stands against a stylized background of a Coast Salish weaving motif from a historic dog-wool blanket. The portrayal of the weaving motif was designed under advisement of the study’s Coast Salish advisory group.
For millennia before Europeans colonized what is now called the Pacific Northwest, small, fluffy, white “woolly dogs,” known as sqwemá:y in one language of the Coast Salish peoples, roamed the coast.
The animals were unlike any dog living today. Their hair was so luxurious that Coast Salish individuals used it to make functionally and ceremonially important blankets.
Only one known woolly dog pelt exists today. By analyzing its genes, scientists have now shown just how different these shaggy creatures were from the Yorkshire terriers and Newfoundland dogs that gallivant around modern neighborhoods.
The woolly dog “wasn’t a dog as we know it,” says Debra qwasen Sparrow, a master weaver of the Musqueam First Nation. “And DNA has proved that.”
Sparrow is a co-author of new research published December 14 in Science that analyzes the fur of a woolly dog named Mutton, which is currently kept by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Mutton died in 1859, around the time when the tradition of tending woolly dogs was crumbling in the face of the Coast Salish peoples’ forced assimilation and decimation by European diseases.
By the early 20th century, the animals had disappeared.
For part of the research, Sparrow shared recollections from her grandfather, who saw some of the last of the sqwemá:y as a young child.
“My grandfather would tease a little bit and say it was kind of like they were our sheep,” Sparrow says. “We would herd them—they stayed in packs; we didn’t want them integrating with the other wild animals.”
The 160-year-old pelt of the woolly dog Mutton in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
The Coast Salish peoples often combined the dogs’ woolly undercoat with mountain goat hair and plant fiber to form a thick yarn that weavers then used to craft patterned blankets.
They used the blankets in ceremonies and to stay warm, making the sqwemá:y a central part of society. “The relationship to those little dogs was a gift,” Sparrow says.
And the attention with which Coast Salish peoples tended to these animals is inscribed in Mutton’s genome, says Audrey Lin, a paleogeneticist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the new research.
“Dog breeds are inbred in order to maintain a very specific phenotype,” Lin says. “There were signatures of that in his genome, which reinforced what we know culturally—that these dogs were kept by the Coast Salish and very carefully maintained for a very long period of time.”
The scientists’ analyses confirmed that Mutton’s lineage goes back about 4,800 years, Lin says. Although Mutton himself seems to have had a great-grandparent that was a European dog breed, the rest of his genome is distinct and includes several mutations affecting skin and hair that could help produce spinnable fur.
“These gene variants, we didn’t see them in any other dogs that we had looked at,” Lin says. Intriguingly, some of these genes cause hair-related diseases or “woolly” hair in humans.
Mutton’s distinctive heritage, retained even as Europeans were encroaching on the Pacific Northwest, is particularly striking. “It just shows how devastating colonialism is,” Lin says. “This ancient tradition of keeping woolly dogs for possibly up to 5,000 years was just gone within a couple of generations.”
With the sqwemá:y now extinct, the Coast Salish relationship with them has become a mere memory. “Settler colonialism has impacted every human and nonhuman being and the relationships between those human and nonhuman beings,” says Kelsey Dayle John, a social scientist at the University of Arizona, who focuses on Indigenous studies and was not involved in the new research.
Sparrow hopes to renew that relationship, looking to create the first traditional blanket in more than a century. Without the sqwemá:y, she’ll have to find another dog whose hair she can spin. She’ll also need to retrace her ancestors’ steps in harvesting mountain goat hair and stripping stinging nettles, which will form the core of her yarn.
After spinning the mixture together, she’ll dye it with diatomaceous earth, a crumbly sedimentary rock made of fossilized algae that keeps insects away.
Sparrow says she also needs to build a new loom to weave the final blanket that can accommodate a yarn that behaves so differently from her usual wool.
“It’s leading me back to that place of wanting to get as close as I can to the originals,” Sparrow says of seeing science dig into the sqwemá:y and their importance to Coast Salish peoples. “What I want society to understand is the intelligence behind these women who were scientifically putting blankets together.”
Rare Byzantine Gold Coin Discovered In Norway – Was It Brought By Harald Hardrada From Constantinople
A metal detectorist found a rare gold coin in the mountains in Vestre Slidre municipality depicting two emperors and Jesus Christ.
Archaeologists are now trying to determine how this 1,000-year-old Byzantine gold coin ended up in the Norwegian mountains. Could it have been part of the great treasure that Harald Hardrada brought home from Constantinople?
Window with a portrait of Harald Hardrada, Lerwick Town Hall, Shetland.
The coin was introduced in Byzantium around 960 A.D. and is unique in the Norwegian context.
According to May-Tove Smiseth, the county archaeologist for Innlandet County in Eastern Norway, the coin is the only one of its kind in Norway.
On one side of the coin, we “can see Christ holding the Bible, and on the other side, it is probably the emperors Basil II (left) and Constantine VIII (right) we see depicted. The two were brothers and ruled together,” Innlandet County Municipality wrote in a press release.
Presumably, the coin was minted early in the 11th century. The exact date is difficult to determine, but the dotted border suggests that it was late in Basil’s and Constantine’s reign, Smiseth explains.
The coin also bears two inscriptions. In Latin, it says Jesus Christ, King of those who rule, and in Greek, it reads Basil and Constantine, emperors of the Romans.
The treasure of Harald Hardrada
In some way or another, the coin found its way to Valdres in Norway.
Perhaps it was originally part of the treasures Harald Hardrada amassed after serving in the Varangian Guard for the Byzantine emperor in 1034? The Varangian Guard consisted of Scandinavian mercenaries who served as bodyguards and were known as being fearless and strong,” Science in Norway reports.
On one side of the coin, the emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII are probably depicted.
During his stay in Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), Harald Hardrada was part of the Varangian Guard and served the Emperor. In older Byzantine sources, Hardrada is referred to as Araltes. At that time, it was customary for the guards to be given the right to loot the palace and take all the valuables they could find when the emperor died. During Hardrada’s time in Byzantium, three emperors had died.
From Harald Hardrada’s Saga by Wilhelm Wetlesen (1871-1925), from Snorre Sturluson: Heimskringla, 1899 edition.
The treasures he acquired during his time as part of the Emperor’s guard in Constantinople, he sent to Prince Yaroslav in Kyiv. The treasures Harald collected were partly used as a dowry so that he could marry Ellisiv, one of the daughters of Prince Jaroslav of Kyiv.
Incidentally, Basil II, who is depicted on the coin, was Ellisiv’s great-uncle.
The sagas also tell us that Harald and his men returned home to Norway with immense wealth in 1046, with ships laden with gold and other valuables.
Harald Hardrada accepted Magnus the Good as co-king of Norway in 1046, as Basil II and Constantine VIII were depicted as co-regents on the coin.
On the other side of the coin we see Christ holding the Bible.
Smiseth explained “three Byzantine gold coins have been found in Sweden, none in Denmark, while 15 have been found in Norway—most of them from various treasure finds made in the 19th century. This includes the recent find in Valdres.
“It’s reasonable to believe that this coin could be from the treasures that Harald Hardrada brought with him. He received a lot of gold in payment from the three emperors in Byzantium who ruled while he was there,” Smiseth says.
“Harald acquired a lot of power by using the gold he returned with to build alliances.”
Scientists will examine the site where the coin was found in 2024. Maybe, archaeologists can unearth something more valuable that can shed more light on the history of the Byzantine gold coin.
Ancient Expensive Roman Domus With Beautiful Mosaic Unearthed In Rome
Archaeologists working within the Colosseum Archaeological Park’s research project, have unearthed some rooms of a luxurious domus dated to the late Republican age.
The discovery was made in close vicinity of the Horrea Agrippiana warehouse complex along the Vicus Tuscus (commercial road that connected the river port on the Tiber and the Roman Forum) built by Augustus’ son-in-law, Marco Vipsanio Agrippa.)
The domus is spread over several floors, probably divided into terraces, and characterized by at least three building phases dating back to the second half of the 2nd century BC and the end of the 1st century BC.
Distributed around an atrium/garden, the domus presents, as its main environment (the specus aestivus) a banquet hall that imitates a cave, used during the summer season and originally animated by spectacular games of water thanks to the passage of some lead fistulas (pipes) between the decorated walls.
An extraordinary wall decorated with the so-called “rustic” mosaic, characterized by the complexity of the scenes depicted and chronology, makes this discovery unique, researchers say in a press release.
The mosaic – dated to the last decades of the 2nd century BC – is made up of different types of shells, Egyptian blue tiles, precious glass, minute flakes of white marble or other types of stone, tartars (fragments of spongy travertine), and all this is bound by mortar and warps. The mosaic presents a complex sequence of figurative scenes.
In the four aedicules, defined by pilasters and decorated with vases from which shoots of lotus and vine leaves emerge, stacks of weapons are depicted with Celtic-type trumpets (carnyx), prows of ships with tridents, rudders with triremes which allude, perhaps , to a double triumph, land and naval, of the owner of the domus.
The large lunette above also presents a fascinating depiction of a landscape with, in the centre, a city, with a cliff simulated with travertine tartars, overlooking the sea crossed by three large ships, one of which with raised sails; a city wall with small towers surrounds the city equipped with porticoes, gates, and a large public building; on one side a pastoral scene.
The representation of a coastal city could allude to a war conquest by the owner of the domus, belonging to an aristocratic figure, presumably of senatorial rank, according to researchers. In an adjoining reception room, however, the careful restoration work has brought to light a white stucco covering with landscapes within fake architecture and figures of the highest quality.
“The discovery of a new domus with an environment decorated with a truly extraordinary mosaic represents an important result which demonstrates, once again, how much the Colosseum Archaeological Park and the Ministry of Culture are constantly committed to promoting research, knowledge, protection and enhancement of our extraordinary cultural heritage.
The discovery then has an important scientific value which makes the domus even more relevant.
After the reopening of the Domus Tiberiana and the improvement of the accessibility of the Flavian Amphitheater, with the inauguration of the elevator which now reaches the third level, the heart of Romanity has therefore revealed an authentic treasure, which it will be our responsibility to safeguard and make accessible to the public”, according the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano.
The archaeological excavation will end in the first months of 2024 and then, this specacular ancient structure will be prepared to finally welcome the public.
