ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Gates of Biblical City Unearthed- Site of Jesus Miracle of feeding 5,000

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.

EUROPE, NETHERLANDS, WORLD

Traces of Historic Fort Found in the Netherlands

Traces of Historic Fort Found in the Netherlands

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.

Traces of Historic Fort Found in the Netherlands
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
AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Sarcophagus of 26th-Dynasty Priest Found in Upper Egypt

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.

Sarcophagus of 26th-Dynasty Priest Found in Upper Egypt
ASIA, SYRIA, WORLD

4,000 Years old Lost Capital of the Fabled Kingdom, Found in Syria

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.
EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Scotland’s 17th-Century Sand-Covered Settlement Explored

Scotland’s 17th-Century Sand-Covered Settlement Explored

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.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

World’s longest fossilized human trackway discovered at White Sands

World’s longest fossilized human trackway discovered at White Sands

Footprints are a common theme at White Sands. Every day, people from all over the world visit and leave traces of their comings and goings. The white dunes of the Tularosa Basin are just a recent blip on the geological timeline.

During the ice age tens of thousands of years ago, a giant body of water called Lake Otero existed. The climate was wetter, and the vegetation was abundant. One could have seen grasslands stretching for miles that would have looked more like the prairies of Nebraska than New Mexico’s deserts.

This paradise of lush green life naturally captured the attention of the larger animals of the ice age. Plant eaters of all kinds came to Lake Otero to feast on the grasses and trees of the Tularosa Basin.

White Sands has the largest collection of fossilized human footprints.

Large plant-eaters attracted fearsome predators of the ice age, such as dire wolves and the American lion. Throughout the ice age, these animals left their footprints along the wetlands of Lake Otero.

Around 12,000 years ago, the earth’s climate began to show signs of change. Areas once green and lush started transforming into the desert landscape we see today. Rainfall in the Tularosa Basin became rare, and the great Lake Otero began to dry.

The once large body of freshwater became only pools of water scattered along the former lakebed. As the waters of Lake Otero dried, crystals began to form from the gypsum left behind by the evaporating lake water. The constant blowing of the wind broke down those large crystals into smaller crystals. This eventually formed the white sand dunes that gave this park its name.

Odd dark spots were discovered to be hidden footprints. Columbian Mammoth footprints are the most common.

Today we find fossil footprints of the animals that once lived here at White Sands more than 10,000 years ago. Scattered along the now dried lakebed are trackways and trample grounds of ancient camels and Columbian Mammoths. These fossilized footprints appear to gather around what may be ancient pools of water.

For 80 years, only a small collection of fossil footprints were known. However, a group of scientists noticed dark spots dotting the expanse of the lakebed that appeared to be footprints. Their curiosities lead them to dig up these odd dark spots.

This led to the discovery of both Harlan’s Ground Sloth and Paleo-Human footprints. During the 2010s, footprints of a dire wolf were discovered. These footprints were located next to ancient seeds. Scientists dated these seeds to more than 18,000 years ago.

The people, who once lived in the Tularosa Basin, left very little proof they lived here. Throughout the basin, pieces of stone flakes from toolmaking, arrowheads, and spear points have been found. However, these appear to be related to peoples who lived after the ice age.

This is in contrast to the surrounding areas that are filled with items left behind from ancient peoples. The lakebed of Lake Otero seems to be almost devoid of a single artifact that dates to before the Spanish exploration in the 1500s, let alone the ice age.

In a scene from the ice age, a woman holding a child on the shores of the ancient Lake Otero leave the footprints in the mud.

At White Sands, we find many remarkable tracks scattered across the lakebed. This includes a long track of human footprints that extends for long distances. While these footprints are ancient, scientists are still uncovering new evidence of past life.

In 2018, researchers discovered what they believe to be the footprints of a female. They tell a story that may seem familiar today her footprints show her walking for almost a mile, with a toddler’s footprints occasionally showing up beside hers.

The footprints broadened and slipped in the mud with additional weight. This suggests that she carried the child, shifting them from side to side and setting them down as they walked. Footprints across White Sands have been found coexisting and interacting with extinct ice age animals.

One set of footprints shows what appears to be humans stalking a giant sloth. This is shown by human footprints being found inside the footprints of the sloth as they were tracked. Currently, there is no evidence of a fruitful hunt, but this is not surprising. Most ice age hunts were not successful, with only one out of three hunts ending with a kill.

The ice age ended because of changes in the earth’s climate. Environments once rich in lush green life began to disappear. The reason for the disappearance of the great beasts of the ice age is still debated among scientists. More than likely, it was the combination of both the changes in climate and the overhunting by skilled people.

The fossilized footprints of White Sands are probably the most important resources in the Americas to the understanding of the interaction of humans and extinct animals from the ice age.

These fossilized footprints, among other natural and cultural features found in the dunefield, further propelled the movement to re-designate White Sands National Monument into White Sands National Park. As a massive landscape filled with history that stretches beyond points on our planet’s geologic timeline, White Sands continually proves itself to be more than just a sandbox.

World’s longest fossilized human trackway discovered at White Sands
An adult and toddlers footprints on the surface of a playa at White Sands National Park. These tracks extend for almost a mile.
EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

The search for the lost city of Troy

The search for the ancient lost city of Troy

The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. The reason for this “Trojan War” was, according to Homer’s “Iliad,” the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta. This abduction was done by Paris, the son of Troy’s King Priam. Throughout the “Iliad” the gods constantly intervene in support of characters on both sides of the conflict.

Troy also refers to a real ancient city located on the northwest coast of Turkey which, since antiquity, has been identified by many as being the Troy discussed in the legend. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, is a matter of debate. The modern-day Turkish name for the site is Hisarlik. 

The idea that the city was Troy goes back at least 2,700 years when the ancient Greeks were colonizing the west coast of Turkey. In the 19th century, the idea again came to popular attention when a German businessman and early archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, conducted a series of excavations at Hisarlik and discovered treasures he claimed to be from King Priam.

The ruins of what is believed to be ‘Troy VI’ in Hisarlik, Turkey.

Troy the legend

The Trojan War is thought to have taken place near the end of the Bronze Age. That is around or before 1200 B.C. It took place around the time that a civilization that we call Mycenaean flourished in Greece. They built great palaces and developed a system of writing. 

The earliest accounts of this war come from Homer, who lived around the eighth century B.C., several centuries after the events took place. They do not appear to have been written down until even later, likely during the sixth century B.C. when a tyrant named Peisistratus ruled Athens.

Homer’s “Iliad” is set in the 10th year of the siege against Troy and tells of a series of events that appear to have taken place over a few weeks. The story makes clear that the siege had taken its toll on the Greek force sent to recover Helen. The “timbers of our ships have rotted away and the cables are broken and far away are our wives and our young children,” the poem reads (translation by Richmond Lattimore). 

The war had essentially become a stalemate with the Greeks unable to take the city and the Trojans unable to drive them back into the sea. We “sons of the Achaians [Greeks] outnumber the Trojans — those who live in the city; but there are companions from other cities in their numbers, wielders of the spear to help them,” the “Iliad” reads. 

A number of key events happen in the poem, including a duel between Menelaos or Menelaus), the king of Sparta and husband of Helen, against Paris. The winner is supposed to receive Helen as a prize, ending the war. However, the gods intervene to break up the duel before it is finished and the war continues. 

Another important duel occurs nears the end of the poem between Achilleus (or Achilles) and a great Trojan warrior named Hektor (or Hector). The Trojan knows that he’s no match for the Greek warrior and initially runs three laps around Troy, with Achilleus chasing him. Finally, the gods force him to face the Greek warrior and he is in turn killed. 

Contrary to popular belief, the “Iliad” does not end with the destruction of Troy but with a temporary truce after which the fighting presumably continues. Another Homeric work called the “Odyssey” is set after the destruction of the city and features the Greek hero Odysseus trying to get home. That poem briefly references how the Greeks took Troy using the famous “Trojan Horse,” a gift concealing warriors within. 

“What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans death and fate!” reads part of the poem (Translation by A.T. Murray through Perseus Digital Library). 

The city’s origin

The site of Hisarlik, in northwest Turkey, has been identified as being Troy since ancient times. Archaeological research shows that it was inhabited for almost 4,000 years starting around 3000 B.C. After one city was destroyed, a new city would be built on top of it, creating a human-made mound called a “tell.”

“There is no one single Troy; there are at least 10, lying in layers on top of each other,” writes University of Amsterdam researcher Gert Jan van Wijngaarden in a chapter of the book “Troy: City, Homer and Turkey”. 

Van Wijngaarden notes that archaeologists have to dig deep to find remains of the first settlement and from what they can tell it was a “small city surrounded by a defensive wall of unworked stone.” Outside the largest gate was a stone with an image of a face, perhaps a deity welcoming visitors to the new city. 

Troy took off in the period after 2550 B.C. The city “was considerably enlarged and furnished with a massive defensive wall made of cut blocks of stone and rectangular clay bricks,” van Wijngaarden writes. He notes that on the settlement’s citadel were houses of the “megaron” type, which contained “an elongated room with a hearth and open forecourt.”

The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. The reason for this “Trojan War” was, according to Homer’s “Iliad,” the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta. This abduction was done by Paris, the son of Troy’s King Priam. Throughout the “Iliad” the gods constantly intervene in support of characters on both sides of the conflict.

Troy also refers to a real ancient city located on the northwest coast of Turkey which, since antiquity, has been identified by many as being the Troy discussed in the legend. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, is a matter of debate. The modern-day Turkish name for the site is Hisarlik. 

The idea that the city was Troy goes back at least 2,700 years, when the ancient Greeks were colonizing the west coast of Turkey. In the 19th century, the idea again came to popular attention when a German businessman and early archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, conducted a series of excavations at Hisarlik and discovered treasures he claimed to be from King Priam.

A stone block with Greek writing sits at the ruins of Troy, Turkey.

The search for Troy

The search for Troy became a major preoccupation for travellers, topographers, writers and scholars in the 18th and early 19th centuries when ancient Greece and its myths captivated public imagination in Europe. But it was not a simple matter and became a subject of heated debate. The division lay between ‘realist’ thinkers, who believed the story of Troy must be based on some historical truth and opponents who claimed it was simply dreamed up in Homer’s poetic imagination and would never be found.

Aerial view of the site of Troy
Silver coin minted in Ilium.

The Troad was mapped and explored and the prevalent theory of the ‘realists’ was that a hill called ‘Pinarbaşı’ had been the site of Troy, but they couldn’t find any evidence. In what should have been a breakthrough, a traveller named Edward Clarke visited a different hill, named ‘Hissarlik,’ in 1801 and identified it as the site of Ilion. He based this on the evidence of coins and inscriptions he found there. However only later in the 19th century would it dawn that Hissarlik was the site not just of Ilion, but also of legendary Troy, which was underneath the Classical remains.

Troy found

Frank Calvert lived in the Troad and owned land next to the mound of Hissarlik. An amateur but skilled archaeologist, he was convinced that there would be a good place to dig. So when Schliemann visited in 1868, with Homer in one hand and a spade in the other, determined to make his name in archaeology, Calvert found him easy to persuade. Calvert helped Schliemann, but it would be Schliemann’s name that became world famous, as the pioneer of archaeology who discovered and revealed the site of ancient Troy.

William Simpson (1823–1899), Excavations at Hissarlik. Watercolour, 1877.
William Simpson (1823–1899), Excavations at Hissarlik. Watercolour, 1877.

Huge publicity surrounded Schliemann’s finds. He announced to the world that in what is now called Troy II he had found the city of mythical King Priam and the Troy of the Trojan War. It was here that he discovered silver and gold vessels and jewellery, which he named ‘Priam’s treasure’ and which he believed included ‘the jewels of Helen’. His interpretation that the finds were evidence of the Trojan War was questioned at the time and, perhaps sadly for romantics everywhere, it is no longer accepted.

Later archaeological work at both Troy and on the Greek mainland, particularly at the site of Mycenae (one of the most important settlements of Bronze Age Greece), makes it clear that any feasible background for the story of the war must have been at least a thousand years later than the Troy that Schliemann claimed as ‘Priam’s Troy.’ Only then was Mycenaean Greece in contact with Troy, and powerful enough for the story to make sense. But of course, Homer was a poet and not a historian. It remains immensely difficult to link the Iliad specifically to the archaeology of Troy.

Schliemann’s excavations, between 1870 and 1890, marked the beginning of intensive archaeological exploration at Troy, by various international teams, that continues today, with current research led by Turkish archaeologists. Understanding of the site, its development over time and its place in the ancient world continue to grow. From an archaeological perspective, there is a rich history to be uncovered that stands quite apart from the myth of the Trojan War and is important in its own right. Yet the myth and the site remain inextricably linked. Few visitors can look out from the walls of ‘windy Troy’ across the Trojan plain without thinking of the massed Greek armies waiting to attack, or the women of Troy watching helplessly as the battle rages below.  

AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD

2-Million-Year-Old Human Ancestor Preserved Tissue Maybe the oldest skin ever discovered

2-Million-Year-Old Human Ancestor Preserved Tissue Maybe the oldest skin ever discovered

The remains of six skeletons are believed to have uncovered fossilised skins of an ancient human ancestor, who lived two million years ago.

Anthropologists believe they have found the preserved skin tissue of an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba in an ancient cave near Johannesburg, in South Africa.

It could be the oldest example of human soft tissue to ever be found and is set to reveal new details about what this now-extinct species of human was like. Scientists who have been leading the excavation, which began with the discovery of the remains of a 4ft 2 inch tall male juvenile in 2008, believe they have also found the remains of the ancient humans’ last meals still preserved in their teeth.

Thin layers of ‘organic’ material thought to be skin were found attacked to the cement-like a rock from which this skull Australopithecus sediba was removed by anthropologists at the Malapa site in South Africa

Professor Lee Berger, an anthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who has been leading the excavation, said: ‘We found out this wasn’t just a normal type of rock that they were contained in – it was a rock that was preserving organic material.

‘Plant remains are captured in it – seeds, things like that – even food particulates that are captured in the teeth, so we can see what they were eating.

‘Maybe more remarkably, we think we’ve found fossil skin here too.’

Professor Berger, who made his comments in an interview with the Naked Scientists, discovered the first remains of Australopithecus sediba in 2008 after his son Matthew stumbled upon a fossilised bone in the Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg.

They later excavated an almost complete skull, together with shoulder bones, a hand, wrist bones and ankle bones. Professor Berger announced the discovery to the world in 2010. He described the early human as a new species that he called Australopithecus sediba and is thought to be a transitional species between earlier Australopithecus species and early Homo species.

However, the discovery has been controversial, with some anthropologists insisting that the remains do not belong to a new species at all, but are in fact a combination of several different early humans.

But since 2010, Professor Berger and his team have unearthed the remains of five other individuals at the Malapa site, including two almost complete skeletons along with a variety of animal fossils.

These, he insists, have helped to confirm the attribution of Australopithecus sediba as a unique species. The researchers believe the site was once an ancient cave that perhaps contained a pool of water that attracted a range of animals that fell in. The cave later collapsed, preserving everything down there.

Research on the remains of Australopithecus sediba has shown they had smaller heads than modern humans (left) and smaller hands (right) with curved fingers that apparently would have made them adept climbers

On two fragments of hominid skull excavated from the ground, however, Professor Berger and his team noticed an unusual surface. Embedded in the cemented rock, known as breccia, that surrounded the cranial remains of the original fossil and a second found at the site were some small, thin layers that looked like preserved soft tissue. Professor John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin Madison who is helping lead the project, said: ‘They do not appear to be skin impressions within the matrix, they appear to be thin layers that are a different substance from the surrounding matrix.

‘In the initial CT-scanning of the MH1 cranium, team members noticed an area where the matrix surrounding the skull appeared irregular.

As they prepared this out, it became clear that the breccia itself had pulled away from the cranium across a small region, and the breccia had a thin layer of material at its surface there. This is not the outer table of the bone – which is intact in the corresponding area – nor is it apparently an impression of the bone. An additional section of possible soft tissue emerged as the female MH 2 mandible was prepared.

‘Upon magnification, these pieces do appear to have a structure.’

The team have been using 3D scanning, microscopy and chemical analysis in an attempt to examine the samples. The researchers also hope to find out whether, if it is soft tissue, it had been dried or soaked in water as it was preserved in the rock. The remains of plants and insects have also been found preserved in the cement-like breccia alongside the skeletons. It is thought that sediment in the bottom of a pool of water may have helped to protect the organic material from bacteria that would have caused them to rot and break down.

Australopithecus sediba is thought to have lived in South Africa around 1.9 million to 2 million years ago at around the same time as other early humans were evolving across the African continent
2-Million-Year-Old Human Ancestor Preserved Tissue Maybe the oldest skin ever discovered
Australopithecus sediba, two fossils of which are shown on the left and right, are thought to have been a transitional species between older Australopithecus, like Lucy in the middle, and later Homo species. However, some experts believe the fossils are not a unique species at all but actually a mix of other early humans

Professor Berger and his team are now trying to create a live laboratory on top of the site so they can continue working on the fossils while they are still in the ground without damaging them. The laboratory will also have a platform that will allow members of the public to look down into the site where the remains are being excavated. Professor Berger said he had no idea how many more individuals they may find at the site. Speaking to Naked Scientists said: ‘That’s why we’re building this laboratory over the top that we’ve begun excavation.

‘But so far, what is exposed on the surface have been two main skeletons and at least the remains of 4 other individuals that we found so far. But every time we open up a little bit of rock here and move a little bit of dirt, we see someone new. We’re introduced to another one of these people that died 2 million years ago.

‘The cave is like a big swimming pool that you’d fill up with concrete throwing bones intermediately into it and in this case, some of those and in fact, quite a lot of them were skeletons of this early human ancestor species.’ He added that his team were still attempting to piece together exactly how these species fit into the evolutionary history of humans.

He said that the skeletons they found have many features similar to Homo – such as the shape of their pelvis, hand and teeth, but they also have quite primate-like features too. Professor Berger added: ‘They walk on two legs. They would probably only be standing about 1.3 metres tall. They have also been more lightly built. They would’ve been quite skinny.

‘They had longer arms than we do, more curved fingers. So, they’re clearly climbing something. They also would’ve moved a little different. Their hips were slightly different than ours and their feet are slightly different.

‘So, their gait would’ve probably been a more rolling type gait, slightly different from the more comfortable long-distance stride we had. As they got closer to you, you’d be struck by for the most obvious thing which would be, their heads are tiny.’

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