Archaeologists Discover London oldest theatre in an Excavation
A team of archaeologists has discovered the oldest built theatre in London beneath a construction site in Whitechapel, UK.
Two beer cellars which were thought to be part of the complex were discovered
Excavations took place before housing development works began at 85 Stepney Way
The Elizabethan playhouse, also known as the Red Lion, was built in 1567, Archaeology South-East, part of University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, said in a press release.
A man named John Brayne built the Elizabethan playhouse outside the city of London to accommodate theatrical troupes that arrived in London in that year.
University College London (UCL) archaeologists believe they found the original site at an excavation in Whitechapel that had many streets and pubs named the Red Lion (or Lyon) for centuries in the Tudor era. It’s amazing what will be uncovered during construction and excavation projects so it’s always best to have consummate professionals on the job like Rickabaugh Construction who will have plans for such contingencies and situations.
The single-gallery multi-sided theatre is a historical famed global theatre with trap doors and a 30-foot (9.1 meters) turret for aerial stunts that also included Red Lion Inn.
Archaeologists have created a map of what they believe the site looked like
However, according to the archaeologists from UCL, the theatre for the touring corps hadn’t survived very long as it witnessed only one play, The Story of Samson.
In 1576, Brayne partnered with his brother-in-law, actor, and manager James Burbage to build the iconic theatre, The Theatre, in Shoreditch after “London banned plays in 1573 because of the plague-16th-century social distancing-which is why these early theatres were built outside the city’s jurisdiction, in the so-called ‘suburbs of sin’,” as per the release.
A late 17th Century tavern mug with a Royalist medallion of Charles II was found among beakers and tankards at the site
The strength of the combined evidence-archaeological remains of buildings, in the right location, of the right period-seem to match up with characteristics of the playhouse recorded in early documents, University College London archaeologist Stephen White, who directed the excavation, said in a statement in the release.
Archaeologists unearthed the Museum of London foundation in 2008 which they believe were The Theater’s remains.
Excavations between 2012 and 2016 were conducted by the Museum of London Archaeology team that revealed that the museum was “rectangular structure, rather than being round, and there was evidence of a tunnel under the stage, as well as first-floor galleries,” according to the release on the UCL’s site.
Excavations also discovered the curtain, ceramic bird whistle, and several ceramic money boxes used to collect fees. Further, they also found evidence of the art in the early centuries with the discovery of beer cellars, including beakers, drinking glasses, and tankards.
Remains of dogs found
Archaeology team’s historic buildings specialist, Michael Shapland was quoted saying that the Tudor period inns needed somewhere cool and secure to store their drink, as beer would have gone off much more rapidly than it does today.
Researchers also found the remains of dogs whose teeth had been filed down at the site.
39,000 Year Old Perfectly preserved Ice Age cave bear found in Arctic Russia
Scientists at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, announced the discovery of a well-preserved cave bear on the New Siberian island of Bolshyoy Lyakhovsky, Anna Liesowska reports for the Siberian Times.
The adult bear lived its life sometime in the last Ice Age, at the same time as large animals like woolly mammoths, mastodons and sabre-toothed tigers.
When the bear died, permafrost preserved its soft tissues, organs and fur, making it the best-preserved example of a cave bear found yet.
This cave bear probably lived between 22,000 and 39,500 years ago, and researchers hope to get a better estimate with the closer study.
Previously scientists only had been able to discover the bones of cave bears that became extinct 15,000 years ago.
Scientists of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, the premier centre for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric species, hailed the find as groundbreaking.
In a statement issued by the university, researcher Lena Grigorieva emphasized that “this is the first and only find of its kind — a whole bear carcass with soft tissues.”
“It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place, including even its nose,” Grigorieva said. “This find is of great importance for the whole world.”
A preliminary analysis indicated that the adult bear lived 22,000 to 39,500 years ago.
“It is necessary to carry out radiocarbon analysis to determine the precise age of the bear,” the university quoted researcher Maxim Cheprasov as saying.
The bear carcass was found by reindeer herders on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. It is the largest of the Lyakhovsky Islands, which are part of the New Siberian Islands archipelago that lies between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea.
At about the same time, a well-preserved carcass of a cave bear cub has also been found in another area in Yakutia’s mainland, the university said. It didn’t describe its condition in detail but noted that scientists are hopeful of obtaining its DNA.
Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, Ice Age foal, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost melts across vast areas in Russia’s region of Siberia.
Archaeological proof for 1,700 YearOld Chemical fighting
Simon James presented CSI-style claims that approximately 20 Roman soldiers discovered in the mine in the town of Dura-Europos in Syria had died, not because of a sword or a spear, but because of asphyxia, said at the conference of the Archeological Institute of America.
The ancient site of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates River in Syria.
The Romans who set up a large garrison conquered Dura-Europos on the Euphrates. The city was vigorously attacked by an army from the powerful new Sasanian Persian Empire around 256 AD.
The dramatic story is told entirely from archaeological remains; no ancient text describes it. Excavations during the 1920s-30s, renewed in recent years, have resulted in spectacular and gruesome discoveries.
Fortifications at Dura-Europos, Syria
The Sasanians used the full range of ancient siege techniques to break into the city, including mining operations to breach the walls. Roman defenders responded with ‘counter-mines’ to thwart the attackers.
In one of these narrow, low galleries, a pile of bodies, representing about twenty Roman soldiers still with their arms, was found in the 1930s.
While also conducting new fieldwork at the site, James has recently reappraised this coldest of cold-case ‘crime scenes’, in an attempt to understand exactly how these Romans died, and came to be lying where they were found.
Dr James, Reader in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, said: “It is evident that, when mine and countermine met, the Romans lost the ensuing struggle.
Careful analysis of the disposition of the corpses shows they had been stacked at the mouth of the countermine by the Persians, using their victims to create a wall of bodies and shields, keeping Roman counterattack at bay while they set fire to the countermine, collapsing it, allowing the Persians to resume sapping the walls.
This explains why the bodies where they were found. But how did they die? For the Persians to kill twenty men in a space less than 2m high or wide, and about 11m long, required superhuman combat powers-or something more insidious.”
Finds from the Roman tunnel revealed that the Persians used bitumen and sulphur crystals to get it burning. These provided the vital clue. When ignited, such materials give off dense clouds of choking gases, which could prove to be deadly to anyone that comes into contact with it. This is why such dangerous and hazardous chemicals are now stored away in cages like those you can find at Storemasta to help protect the health of the people. Of course, in those days, it is very unlikely that these types of things existed.
“The Persians will have heard the Romans tunnelling,” says James, “and prepared a nasty surprise for them. I think the Sasanians placed braziers and bellows in their gallery, and when the Romans broke through, added the chemicals and pumped choking clouds into the Roman tunnel.
The Roman assault party were unconscious in seconds, dead in minutes. Use of such smoke generators in siege-mines is actually mentioned in classical texts, and it is clear from the archaeological evidence at Dura that the Sasanian Persians were as knowledgeable in siege warfare as the Romans; they surely knew of this grim tactic.”
Ironically, this Persian mine failed to bring the walls down, but it is clear that the Sasanians somehow broke into the city. James recently excavated a ‘machine-gun belt’, a row of catapult bolts, ready to use by the wall of the Roman camp inside the city, representing the last stand of the garrison during the final street fighting.
The defenders and inhabitants were slaughtered or deported to Persia, the city abandoned forever, leaving its gruesome secrets undisturbed until modern archaeological research began to reveal them.
Illustration showing the proposed use of toxic gas at Dura-Europos.
Gates of Biblical City Unearthed- Site of Jesus Miracle of feeding 5,000
In the last few weeks, local officials in northern Golan Heights in Israel announced a significant discovery by archaeologists. The entrance gate to the great fortified city, just north of the Sea of Galilee has been excavated, leading some to claim it is additional evidence supporting the site being Bethsaida, the city of three of Jesus’ disciples and associated with his famous miracle of the loaves and fishes. The early phase of the city may also have an intriguing connexion to the Bible’s King David, who reigned around 1000 BC.
A model of the city gate of Zer under construction. Courtesy of The International Studies and Programs
The remains of the entrance gate, standing about 10 feet high, were unearthed at a place called et-Tell by the Bethsaida Excavations Project, which just wrapped up its 2018 season. The director is Professor Rami Arav from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who has excavated the site for nearly 30 years.
“It is the largest and the best preserved city gate [in Israel],” Arav told the Times of Israel. “Likewise, this year’s excavation provides evidence that Bethsaida, an Aramean settlement, houses one of the earliest towers incorporated in city walls in Israel,” he said.
“In the entire archaeology of the Land of Israel from 10-8th century BCE, there are no towers on city walls. Israelites did not have this feature. This is the first example of towers surrounding a city in Israel,” Arav added. This “unusual feature” of guard towers were placed every 20 meters around the city wall.
The gate is believed by archaeologists to have been used from the 11th century BC down to about 920 BC. As reported in the Jerusalem Post, Professor Arav stated, “There are not many gates in this country from this period. Bethsaida was the name of the city during the Second Temple period [during the time of Jesus], but during the First Temple period it was the city of Zer.” Pointing to Joshua 19:35, he continued, “The fortified towns were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Kinnereth.”
These were the fortified cities in land allotted to the tribe of Naphtali after the conquest of Canaan. If this was the site of Zer, there should be even older remains, under the current dig levels, from the period of Israel’s conquest of Canaan.
The inner gate floor from the 11th-10th century BC
The city of Zer (or “Tzer”) was also possibly the historical capital of Geshur, which at the time of King David was an independent Aramean kingdom just northeast of Israel.
The area may have been referenced in the famous Tel Amarna letters between Pharaoh Akhenaten and city leaders in Canaan. The Bible says one of David’s wives was Maacah the daughter of the king of Geshur, apparently a politically-driven marriage to unify the two kingdoms.
The third [son of David], Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur…
– 1 Chronicles 3:2 (ESV)
The Times of Israel points out that Maacah (or “Maachah”) was the mother of Absalom, who fled to his mother’s homeland of Geshur after murdering his half-brother (2 Samuel 13:37-38). The close ties between the two kingdoms were renewed when Absalom’s daughter, also named Maacah, married Solomon’s son Rehoboam, king of Judah (1 Kings 14:31-15:2). These facts cause Arav to speculate that King David may have walked through this very gate to claim his bride. He amusingly recounted his impression of the royal courtship in the Time articles:
‘King David entered the gate to meet the king of Geshur to ask for the hand of his daughter. Maachah looked at him like a “hillbilly” mountain guy, but for the sake of inclusion into the Bible, went through with it. “So we’re digging the gate where David entered,” said Arav, laughing.’
Judea Capta coin with the head of Domitian found at Bethsaida, dated to AD 85.
In past seasons, evidence from many different periods was found, evidence that this site had significance for millennia. Among the finds was a decorated pottery shard from 300 BC showing the birth of the Greek goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus. Also found was a rare Roman coin issued in AD 85 by Agrippa II with the phrase “Judea Capta” (or “Judea is captive”), commemorating the crushing of the Jewish rebels and their temple in AD 70.
This year, archaeologists from 20 international institutions joined Arav in the dig sponsored by the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. The size of the site confirms the Bible’s account of the significance of Geshur at the time of David.
The Connection to Jesus
The recent finds also join other archaeological evidence in the debate over whether this really was the site of Bethsaida at the time of Jesus. For nearly thirty years, et-Tell has been designated by Israel as Bethsaida, one of the holiest sites to Christians, but for that entire time, this has long been a disputed issue.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
– John 1:44 (ESV)
Bethsaida’s importance in the Gospels can be seen in that it is the third most referenced city after Jerusalem and Capernaum. The Book of John mentions that Bethsaida had been home to the apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip. Other passages make it clear that after his marriage, Peter had moved his family into the house of his mother-in-law in nearby Capernaum.
The majority of Jesus’ Galilean ministry took place in the area around Bethsaida, Capernaum and Chorazin – three cities within three miles of each other near the northeast coast of the Sea of Galilee. Because of confusing descriptions in the Gospel accounts, some scholars have proposed that there were two cities named Bethsaida on the shores of Galilee.
An approximate map of Bethsaida near the northern banks of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
The miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 men plus women and children from five loaves and two fish is said by the Gospel of Luke to have taken place in a wilderness area near the town of Bethsaida.
The miracle of the loaves and fishes – James Tissot between 1886-1894
On their return, the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing… And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
– Luke 9:10-11, 16-17 (ESV)
This miracle, along with many others done in the area (including the healing of a blind man in Mark 8:22), is the reason behind Jesus’ stern rebuke for the unbelief of the local population in the chapter following the account of the miraculous feeding.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
– Luke 10:13 (ESV)
The important place these events have in the Gospels draws throngs of Christians to sites in this area every year. Avi Liberman, director of the Jordan Park in which Bethsaida is located, said, “The staff at the Jordan Park and the Golan Tourism are happy for the tens of thousands of visitors who visit the park every day. The wonderful park is also an impressive archaeological site. I [am] amazed each time by the arrival of thousands of evangelical visitors to Bethsaida. I am confident that the latest discoveries will bring more visitors to the park from around the world and from Israel” reported the Jerusalem Post.
NL Times reports that traces of a Spanish fort built in the sixteenth century during the Eighty Years’ War have been uncovered in Leiden.
The location of a Spanish fort used in the 1573-1574 Siege of Leiden during the Eighty Years’ War.
The remain of a Spanish fort established during the Eighty Years’ War was uncovered by archaeologists in Leiden.
The Lammenschans fort is part of a well known local legend that when Spanish troops fled at the end of the Siege of Leiden they left behind a pot still filled with a stew that may have been the origin for hutspot, a Dutch dish now made from boiled and mashed potatoes, carrots and onions.
Legend has it that Dutch orphan Cornelis Joppenszoon found the stew, then made with parsnips and carrots, and the abandoned fort on 3 October 1574.
Some 446 years later, pieces of pewter forks or spoons, drinking cups, pottery, fishing line and a bead were found at the site, along with portions of the moat dugout to protect the location.
Joppenszoon grabbed the stew and hiked a kilometre north to the Leiden city walls. The Watergeuzen, a collection of beggars and pirates who helped fight off the Spanish, arrived in the city with white bread and herring.
A tradition was born, and the city has celebrated its liberation under the banner “Leiden is no longer in trouble” ever since, where hutspot, white bread and herring are served annually on 3 October.
“De Lammenschans is found. Just in the month that we celebrate that ‘Leiden is no longer in trouble’, our archaeologists find the remains of what sometimes seemed like a legend,” said Willy de Zoete, the Deputy for Culture and Heritage for the Province of Zuid-Holland.
“Our Zuid-Holland land represents a special remnant of our connection to our history.”
The exact location of the site was completely unknown with few attempts made to find it until 2017 when a crowdfunding campaign was launched. This was tied in with the RijnlandRoute infrastructure project, which made it possible to excavate at and below the Europaweg.
The items found at the site were dated to the 16th and 17th centuries, according to a statement from the province. Several other bags of soil were also collected at the location and will be analyzed in the coming months.
Archaeologist Ivar Schute with a discovery at the Lammenschans, a 16th-century Spanish fort Used during the Siege of Leiden and re-discovered in October 2020
Sarcophagus of 26th-Dynasty Priest Found in Upper Egypt
Ahram Online reports that a sarcophagus dated to the 26th Dynasty (688–525 B.C.) and a collection of ushabti statuettes were found in a 16-foot-deep shaft at the archaeological site of Al-Ghoreifa, which is located in Upper Egypt.
An Egyptian archaeological mission has unveiled a new collection of amulets and scarabs found inside a coffin unearthed in January in the Minya Governorate’s Al-Ghoreifa area, near the Tuna el-Gebel necropolis.
The mission determined that the sarcophagus, which dates back to Egypt’s 26th dynasty, belongs to the Ancient Egyptian God Thoth’s (Djehuty in Egyptian) High Priest, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Thoth was the Egyptian god of writing, magic, wisdom, and the moon. His followers primarily resided in the ancient city of Hermopolis, located near the modern town of Al Ashmunin.
The Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, said that the mission discovered in its third season hundreds of relics, including heart-shaped scarabs, winged scarabs, and amulets representing different deities.
On September 21, the mission unearthed from a burial well a limestone coffin decorated with images of the four children of Horus, as well as a collection of Ushabti statues made of vines. The mission began in the area in 2018 and has since unearthed dozens of tombs and antiquities.
4,000 Years old Lost Capital of the Fabled Kingdom, Found in Syria
Ancient city of Urkesh, home to the Hurrian culture.
One of the most ancient cities known to exist on earth is Urkesh. Its exact location was a mystery until the 1990s when, after ten years of painstaking excavations, archaeologists identified Tel Mozan in northern Syria near the borders of Turkey and Iran as Urkesh.
The capital city of the Hurrians, it flourished between 4,000 and 1,300 BCE. It initially became powerful because of its location at the intersection of major trade routes as well as its control of valuable copper deposits.
Ruins of monumental public buildings, including a large temple and a palace, have been found. The architecture is not only mud-brick construction but also rare stone structures.
Intact stone stairway at Urkesh.
Archaeologists have discovered remains of an open plaza, a monumental flight of stairs, and a deep underground shaft related to religious rituals known as the “Passage to the Netherworld.”
Urkesh dominated the ancient skyline at the top of a built-up terrace that rivaled nearby mountains.
Lion and stone tablet inscribed with Hurrian language.
Very little was known about the Hurrians before Urkesh was positively identified. There may not have been many Hurrian cities in what is present-day southern Syria, but their civilization influenced the entire Middle East.
They were a major influence on Mesopotamia to the south and cultures such as the Hittites as cities were first developing in that region.
Unlike the centralized political structures of ancient Assyria and Egypt, Hurrian urban culture seems to have been more feudal in the organization, possibly limiting the development of large palace or temple complexes.
The unique Hurrian language is unlike any other known ancient language. Historians believe that the speakers of this language originally came from the Armenian Highlands and spread over southeast Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia at the beginning of the second millennium BCE.
Hurrian incense container.
Accomplished ceramists, Hurrian pottery was highly valued in distant Egypt. Khabur ware and Nuzi ware are two types of wheel-made pottery used by the Hurrians.
Khabur ware is characterized by reddish painted lines with a geometric triangular pattern and dots, while Nuzi ware has very distinctive forms, and are painted in brown or black.
Also known for achievements in metallurgy, Hurrians traded copper south to Mesopotamia from the highlands of Anatolia.
The Khabur Valley had a central position in the metal trade, and copper, silver and even tin were accessible from Hurrian-dominated countries in the Anatolian highland. Among the few surviving examples of Hurrian metalwork, some small fine bronze lion figurines were discovered at Urkesh.
Sadly, the Syrian civil war has disrupted the fascinating archaeological activities at Urkesh and endangered future discoveries about the Hurrian culture. The site lies close to the Turkish border and is now protected by Kurdish troops and a team of local workers.
4,000 year-old bakery with paved floor and “beehive” oven.
According to a report in The Scotsman, Gerry Bigelow of Bates College and his colleagues have found evidence that someone returned to live in the Shetland island settlement of Broo after it was buried under more than six feet of sand in the late seventeenth century.
It became known as the ‘Arabian Desert in the North” with visitors making their way to Broo to witness this new surreal landscape that emerged.
Archaeologists working on-site over a number of years have dug out more than two metres of sand to excavate the main house of the settlement with three other buildings also of interest.
They have now revealed they believe that someone returned to the site in the years after it was abandoned to make a home in a submerged outbuilding, even building a staircase to allow them to get over the new ‘dunes’ that surrounded them.
Evidence of life at Broo has also been found, with shards of clay pipe and pottery discovered along with animal bones, coins – possibly dropped by visitors – and elephant artefacts that were probably owned by the wealthy Sinclair family who headed the township.
Dr Gerry Bigelow, of the Shetland Islands Climate and Settlement Project and a visiting reader at the Archaeology Institute of the University of Highlands and Islands, said: “We have had to get through two metres of sand to get to the original levels of the township. It has taken us years. It is really very dramatic when you see what is there.”
Dr Bigelow said life must have been “pretty grim” for the people – or person- who returned to the settlement after the residents had fled.
He added: “You would have to climb out of your house onto the landscape that keeps rising. They did not abandon the house until the sand reached the eaves of the roof.
“We don’t know who lived there, or why. They were out in a dune field, there was sand all around, but someone kept living there.
“It is difficult to say exactly what was going on but even though the land was ruined, it still had value to someone. It may have been that someone just needed somewhere to live.”
Part of the research is to understand why sand engulfed the community, who lived around 2 kilometres inland from the beach at Quendale.
Climate change is a key area of interest, with the effects of the Little Ice Age of 1645 to 1715, when temperatures in Scotland were 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius cooler than they were today, of particular focus.
“We are also interested if humans were using the landscape in such a way that made them vulnerable to storms.”
One theory is that islanders may have been using sand to grow some crops, with it is known that certain types of oats did well in this type of environment, or that rabbits destroyed the protective dune system.
