NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Archaeologists Find 16,000-Year-Old tools in Texas

16,000-Year-Old Tools Discovered in Texas, Among the Oldest Found in the West

In the 1990s, archeologists in Texas claim they made a significant find by uncovering a cache of stone tools from 13,000 years ago that showed evidence of the continent ‘s oldest widely spread civilization. But then, years later, they made an even more powerful find in the same place — another layer of artifacts that were older still. About a half-hour north of Austin and a meter deep in water-logged silty clay, researchers have uncovered evidence of human occupation dating back as much as 16,700 years, including fragments of human teeth and more than 90 stone tools.

In addition to being some of the oldest yet found in the American West, the artifacts are rare traces of a culture that predated the culture known as Clovis, whose distinctively shaped stone tools found across North America have consistently been dated to about 13,000 years ago. Indeed, an entire generation of anthropologists was taught that Clovis represented the continent’s first inhabitants. But, along with a handful of other pre-Clovis finds, the Texas tools add to the mounting evidence that humans arrived on the continent longer ago than was once thought, said Dr. D. Clark Wernecke, director of the Gault School of Archaeological Research.

“The most important takeaway is that people were in the New World much earlier than we used to believe,” Wernecke said.

The pre-Clovis artifacts include more than 90 stone tools, such as bifaces and blades, and more than 160,000 flakes left over from the point-making process.

“We were all taught [North America was first populated] 13,500 years ago, and it appears that people arrived 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.”

The location in Texas where the new finds were made, known as the Gault Site, was first identified in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that archaeologists discovered the first tools, like tapered-oval spearheads, that were clear signs of the ancient Clovis culture. It was those finds that Wernecke and his colleagues went to investigate further when they began working at the Gault site in 2002.

“At the time, we were interested in Clovis, and we had no idea of anything earlier there,” he said. After several years of digging test pits and making chance finds, the team ended up focusing on two of the most striking parts of the site. The first part, known as Area 12, revealed an unusual “pavement” constructed out of cobbles buried deep beneath the surface.

“[It’s] a roughly two-by-three-meter rectangular gravel pad about 10 centimeters thick of rounded river gravels in a narrow range of sizes, with artifacts of at least Clovis age on and around it,” Wernecke said.

“The indications from the surrounding data are that it had a structure on it.”

The presence of Clovis-era stone tools suggested that the paved floor dated to about 13,000 years ago. The team kept digging, and about 1 meter below the pavement and the Clovis tools, they found nine more flakes of shaped stone, along with a scattering of animal bones. Assuming that material found below the Clovis pavement must be older than Clovis, the researchers were intrigued. But there was not much to go on.

Researchers found stone tools fashioned in the signature Clovis style. But several centimeters below that, an abundance of new material appeared — including human teeth.

“In Area 12, you have the pavement, lithics, and bone, and not much else,” Wernecke said. However, the team also turned its attention to another area nearby, where it discovered significantly more, and larger, artifacts that were also older than Clovis. Here, at a spot named Area 15, the researchers first found a few more stone tools fashioned in the signature Clovis style. But several centimeters below that, an abundance of new material appeared — including human teeth.

Among a pile of limestone rocks, the team discovered the enamel caps of four adjacent teeth from a young adult female. No human bones were found, and enamel can’t be radiocarbon dated, Wernecke noted, so details about the woman — like how and when she lived and died — remain a mystery for now. However, within this same, deep, older-than-Clovis layer of sediment, the researchers unearthed yet another compelling find — more than 90 stone tools, fashioned in a style that clearly wasn’t Clovis. Clovis projectile points can be identified by their long parallel-sided shape — a form known as lanceolate — as well as by their thin bases, and notches where a shaft could be hafted onto the stone.  But many of the newly found, deeper artifacts didn’t fit that description.

“The morphology is completely different,” Wernecke said. “They are not lanceolate points with basal thinning.

“Three of them are very small stemmed points, and the fourth is a somewhat thick sort of lanceolate point. In addition to the 90 tools, the artifacts include more than 160,000 stone flakes left over from the tool-making process. And they, too, are different from the flakes found with Clovis tools, Wernecke said.

“The flaking patterns are also completely different,” he said.
“These were not made using Clovis technology.”

But the fact that these artifacts were different from and deeper than, the Clovis points didn’t necessarily prove that they were older. To establish their age, Wernecke and his colleagues submitted 18 of the artifacts to a lab for optically stimulated luminescence dating — a process that analyzes tiny grains in the soils to reveal when they were last exposed to sunlight, thereby giving a sense of how long they’ve been buried. The results showed that the artifacts were between 13,200 to 16,700 years old. At their most ancient, that’s some 3,000 years older than the earliest known signs of Clovis culture anywhere in North America.

“We compared these [dates] with relative dating of artifacts and radiocarbon dates wherever possible,” Wernecke added. “All seem to agree well.”

The discovery of all of these older-than-Clovis artifacts raises tantalizing questions about what that earlier culture was like, and how it compared to the Clovis culture. According to Wernecke, the pre-Clovis tools suggest that their makers were likely direct predecessors of the Clovis. Many aspects of their technology — like how they made biface blades — were similar but not identical, he said.

A comparison of a Clovis point found at the Gault site (left) with the bases of older points found below the Clovis layer.

“Blade technology does not seem to have changed a lot — a little bit in technique, but both cultures were making similar blades,” he said.

“Likewise, many of the tools are the same basic tools — easily recognizable to either technological culture but made in a different fashion. A different set of technological tools and instructions were used to arrive at similar tool types.” This continuity in technology might indicate a similar continuity of culture, Wernecke added, a gradual transition from one culture to the next.

“You would logically expect some similarity,” he said. “If people adopted new technology, some of the old would hang around.

“If [the tools] were completely different, you would expect to find another culture in between [the Clovis and older-than-Clovis layers], or evidence for total replacement of the population.”

Much more work remains to be done at the Gault site, Wernecke said. But the discoveries made there so far have enormous implications for our understanding of the history of human migration and the peopling of the Americas, Wernecke said. 

“In 1590, [Spanish missionary and naturalist] Jose de Acosta wrote that the people in the New World were primitive humans who must have walked here, and we have built on that premise ever since,” he said.

“But it was not possible to walk here until much later, with 3-mile-high glaciers in the way.

“If people got here 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, they had to have come along the coast in boats.” Moreover, he added, the diversity of artifacts uncovered at the Gault site also shows that the continent’s earliest peoples were not a static or monolithic group.

“We are beginning to understand that the first peoples in the new world were just like us,” Wernecke said, “intelligent, inventive, creative — and they found ways to adapt to a rapidly changing world.”

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

14,000-Year-Old Poop Found in Oregon Cave Turns Out to Be Human

14,000-Year-Old Poop Found in Oregon Cave Turns Out to Be Human

Gizmodo reports that archaeologists John Blong and Lisa-Marie Shillito of Newcastle University and their colleagues tested 21 coprolites unearthed in Oregon’s Paisley Caves for the presence of human sterols and bile, which are not soluble in water and thus chemically stable. Previous mitochondrial DNA testing of the ancient waste indicated that all of the samples were human in origin, but critics argued that DNA from later occupation of the cave may have washed into lower, older cave sediments and contaminated the samples.

Outside the Paisley Caves entrance.

“We address issues of potential DNA contamination through fecal lipid biomarker analysis, providing evidence that there likely was DNA moving from younger human occupations into older cave sediments and coprolites, but also confirming that people were camping at the caves as early as 14,200 years ago,” Blong said.

Genetic analysis of the coprolites suggested they came from humans, but some researchers questioned this result, citing possible contamination of the samples. The progeny of the poop remained unresolved for years, but new research is providing a fresh look at these stale but incredibly important piles of dung.

Paisley Caves

Humans first entered North America around the end of the last ice age, sometime between 20,000 and 15,000 years ago. Further confirmation of exactly when and how this migration took place would be a big deal, even if the evidence in question is literally full of crap. Coprolites, in order to last for so long, require an arid environment. Plenty of dry caves exist in western North America, but Paisley Caves are special in that they’re the only ones known to harbor evidence of human activity dating back to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.

That said, this evidence is not great. Aside from the supposed human coprolites, the only other evidence at Paisley Caves from this time period tends to be flakes left over from the manufacturing of stone tools (which can’t be reliably dated) and butchery marks found on the bones of possible prey animals (which might actually be gnaw marks made by non-human animals). This is where ancient poop can help—when skeletal or other lines of evidence are either scarce or non-existent.

“The most convincing evidence for many archaeologists was a collection of preserved feces containing Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deposited 14,400 to 14,000 years ago, making them the oldest directly dated human remains in the Western Hemisphere,” John Blong, a co-author of the new study and an archaeologist at Newcastle University, wrote in an email to Gizmodo. “This evidence was criticized, though, because several of the coprolites contained both human and dog mtDNA, suggesting that the human mtDNA may be the result of contamination from overlying layers. No one doubts that the coprolites are as old as the radiocarbon dates say they are, they just doubt they are human.”

That the prior mtDNA analysis was deficient is a distinct possibility. People and animals have been sharing these caves for millennia, so it’s very possible that genetic material from one pile of poop leached onto others.

“If you’ve ever watched a crime show on TV, you know that DNA can get everywhere,” said Blong. “Organisms constantly shed DNA in hair, skin cells, sweat, saliva, and so on.” At the same time, DNA is soluble in water, making it highly mobile in wet environments.

“Even though the interior of the Paisley Caves is very dry, we do see clues in the sediments that there were occasional, short-term wetting events,” Blong explained. “Imagine a storm with heavy rain that blows into the caves. The rain soaks into the cave sediments and dries a day or two later. Even in this short period of time, the water can transport human DNA left by a later group down into the deeper sediments representing an earlier time.”

Archaeologist Lisa-Marie Shillito collecting cave samples.
Archaeologist Lisa-Marie Shillito collecting cave samples.

Thankfully, DNA isn’t the only clue available to scientists, as coprolites also contain fecal lipid biomarkers, which can be pinned to certain types of animals. Moreover, lipids—organic molecular compounds that include fats, oils, steroids, and other biosignatures—are not very soluble in water, so they don’t tend to move around caves when things get wet. They’re also chemically stable, so they preserve well over long timescales.

“These characteristics make lipids a more reliable source for identifying human coprolites in a setting where cave sediments occasionally get wet,” said Blong.

With this in mind, Blong, along with study co-author Lisa-Marie Shillito and other colleagues, analyzed the lipid biomarkers found in 21 coprolite samples taken from Paisley Caves, all of which were previously found to be of human origin through mtDNA analysis. The researchers ran tests to determine sterol and bile content, in order to discern human feces from those produced by other animals. The researchers then compared these samples to the surrounding sediment, finding that minimal leaching occurred between the coprolites and the cave environment.

Of the 21 samples analyzed, 13 were identified as belonging to humans, two of which had been previously dated to the 14,000-year-old timeframe. Interestingly, one poop sample was linked to a panther and another to a lynx. Details of this analysis were published in Scientific Reports.

Study co-author Helen Whelton working on samples in the lab.

“Our study addresses persistent criticisms of the DNA evidence for the earliest human occupation of the Paisley Caves,” said Blong. “We address issues of potential DNA contamination through fecal lipid biomarker analysis, providing evidence that there likely was DNA moving from younger human occupations into older cave sediments and coprolites, but also confirming that people were camping at the caves as early as 14,200 years ago.”

Katelyn McDonough, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University, told Gizmodo that the fecal biomarker approach is “very exciting,” as lipids “preserve better and move less than other materials, such as DNA.” Overall, “this study both advances and showcases the fecal biomarker approach and makes a good case for the use of this method in tandem with DNA analysis in the future,” said McDonough, who wasn’t involved in the new research, though she has spent time working in Paisley Caves.

McDonough said she was “somewhat surprised” by the disagreement between the DNA and biomarker readings for some of the coprolites, “but that goes to show that we shouldn’t always rely solely on DNA and that multiple lines of evidence are best, when possible.”

For the new study, the authors also directly dated a cultural remnant found in the caves. A bulrush fragment, either from a basket or mat, was found to be roughly 14,000 years old, “further confirming the earliest human occupation,” said Blong. McDonough said the directly dated piece of basketry is “incredible” and an “extremely unique glimpse into plant use and textile production around 14,000 years ago.”

“We still have a lot to learn about when the first people arrived in the Americas, where they came from, and what routes they took to get here,” said Blong. “Our study adds to growing evidence that people were in the Americas more than 14,000 years ago, prior to the widespread Clovis culture.”

Indeed, the new paper is further evidence that humans reached this part of the world prior to the emergence of Clovis culture and its iconic stone tool technology. The Clovis people, who emerged around 11,500 to 11,000 years ago, were once considered to be the first inhabitants of North America, but this theory is increasingly coming into doubt. Archaeological evidence excavated in western Idaho suggests humans were in the region well over.

As Blong pointed out, these coprolites are the oldest directly dated human remains in the Western Hemisphere, but there’s other important archaeological evidence to consider. A study from last year, for example, showcased some of the earliest evidence of humans in North America, specifically at the Cooper’s Ferry site in western Idaho. Stone tools, animal bones, traces of fire pits, and other signs of human occupation were dated to between 16,560 and 15,280 years ago.

It’s also worth pointing out that the colossal ice sheet separating North America from Siberia began melting around 14,800 years ago. That humans were living in Oregon’s Paisley Caves soon afterward is not much of a surprise, but it’s good to have this extra bit of poopy evidence. Excitingly, these human coprolites have more stories to tell. As Blong told Gizmodo, he and his colleagues are currently analyzing the coprolites to figure out what these pioneering humans were eating.

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Viking Trade Center Found in Northern Norway

Viking Trade Center Found in Northern Norway

According to a statement released by the Arctic University of Norway, archaeology student Tor-Kjetil Krokmyrdal has discovered a Viking trade center in northern Norway on the coast of the island of Hinnøya. Jewelry, weights, coins, and items related to forging iron and shipbuilding and repair have been recovered. The ninth-century site is the first of its kind to be found in the region.

Here, at Sandtorg by Tjelsund, Tor-Kjetil discovered a trading place that existed as early as the 800s.

The archaeologist, Marte Spangen, who supervises Krokmyrdal in her work in this area, says that this discovery means that researchers need to reconsider the way societies and trade functioned in this region during the Viking Age and in the early Middle Ages.

We know from earlier that Vågan in Lofoten functioned as an important financial center for Northern-Norway in the Middle Ages, but through objects found with a metal detector and other forms of analysis, Krokmyrdal has shown that trading was going on in Sandtorg as early as the 800s.

A curious name

How did a master’s student make such a discovery?
“I have worked on this for a few years”, Krokmyrdal points out.

It’s been his hobby for several years to search for metals, alongside his full-time employment working with logistics at the postal company Post Nord. He explains that it all started with a book many archaeologists are familiar with, Olav Rygh’s analysis of Norwegian farm names.

Sandtorg literally means «market or trading place at Sand». No archaeological evidence could actually prove this to be right, but it made Krokmyrdal curious. At first, he did not find anything at Sandtorg, but it turned out that he was searching too low, and that the areas he was examining had been underwater during the Viking Age. Once he moved higher in the terrain, the discoveries started rolling in.

“That’s when I signed up for the master programme in archaeology”, Krokmyrdal says.

Travelers spent the night at Tjelsund

Even as late as our near-past, strong currents would often force travelers to wait in Tjelsund before they could continue their journey. «Tjeld» is a reference to the verb «tjelde», which means to spend the night in or under the boat once it’s been pulled up on land.

The Sandtorg Farm lies by the strongest current and has probably been a natural place to stop for travelers. Its location and historical sources make it plausible that a chieftain at the farm Sand on the other side of the straits controlled the shipping going through the strong currents in Tjelsund, and might have demanded tariffs of those travelling through the straits as early as the Early Iron Age.

This developed into the trade during the Viking Age, or as Krokmyrdal wants to call it, exchange of goods, a term that covers both the trade of money and the trading of goods and services. This gives the farm name Sandtorg meaning as «the market of the Sand Chieftain».

Imports from the Viking Age: To the left: Eastern origin. To the right: Weights with an inscription from the British Isles (probably Ireland).

Imports from the great beyond.

The discoveries Krokmyrdal has made with his metal detector shows that the trade may have entailed repairs or building of ships, something that is also mentioned in the sagas in reference to the Sand Chieftains. Krokmyrdal has found both jewelry, weights, coins, and so-called silver payment at Sandtorg.

He has also found objects that have been imported from the British Isles, Finland, and the continent. The merchants of the Hanseatic League as we know, traded a lot with countries abroad and brought exotic objects all the way to Northern Norway.

“The most exotic thing I found was something of oriental origin – a kind of jewelry that has been used on a belt or a strap – that came north along with Arabic coins”, says Krokmyrdal.

But what he reckons is his most important discovery, were the large amounts of iron that was lying near the beach during that time. This suggests that there must have been an iron forge, and maybe even a boatyard at Sandtorg.

Expected discovery

Krokmyrdal himself was not at all surprised with his discoveries, both because of the source that explained the meaning of the toponym, and other sources that suggested that this was a trading place. Peter Dass mentioned in his writing that the traders “sat closely together in Tjelsundet”.

“The location is also very strategic in terms of trade. The current at Sandtorg is really strong, and all the travellers would have to wait until the current turned before they could continue their journey”, he explains.

What more natural then than to offer travelers a couple of goods and some time off in the form of “shopping”?

Thus, it looks like trading was being done at Sandtorg from the 800s and all the way up to the 1950s. There might have been more traders there earlier, but from the 1500s trade was regulated by laws that demanded those who ran trade be city residents. They were only to trade during summer and stay in town during winter. Since those times, there was only one trader around at Sandtorg.

Silver payment could be used both to pay for goods (per gram of silver) and as a resource for silversmiths.

Important discoveries

“It is not common for master’s students to do their own fieldwork, and even more uncommon that they bring forth their own material”, says Krokmyrdal’s supervisor Marte Spangen, who is impressed by the master’s student.

Spangen believes that Krokmyrdal’s work is important in several ways; the discovery of a trading place in Viking Age Northern Norway, which includes the discovery of coins and objects a long way from home, means that researchers will have to re-think how societies and trade functioned in this region during the Viking Age and the Early Middle Ages. She believes the discoveries will make people more aware of how useful metal detectors can be in discovering these kinds of localities that have not left any visible traces of cultural heritage on the surface.

“Krokmyrdal has also made specific discoveries that may change how we understand different networks of exchange and what kind of ironwork has been going on in Northern-Norway”, Spangen says.

She adds that the traces of a possible boatyard is truly unique in a Norwegian context and something that requires further studies. The examined area is a protected area, and Krokmyrdal has had special permission from the Directorate for Cultural Heritage to conduct metal detection in the area for his master’s thesis.

“It is quite remarkable for a master’s student to make such important discoveries”, Spangen adds.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Egyptian archaeological team opens the door on an ancient treasure trove

Egyptian archaeological team opens the door on ancient treasure trove

Archaeology org reports that a team led by Mohammed Abd Al-Badea discovered a series of rock-cut openings in a cliff while surveying Upper Egypt’s valley of Abydos. No burials have been found at the site, but pottery suggests it was used during the Ptolemaic period, from 304 to 30 B.C.

Some openings lead to one chamber, while others lead to groups of two, three and five chambers, thought to be of ancient religious significance

An extensive series of mysterious opening cut high in a cliff inside the sacred valley south of the Royal Cemetery of Umm Al Qaab has been discovered by the Egyptian archeological investigations team, headed by Mohammed Abd Al-Badea and documenting human activity from prehistoric ages to modern times about eight-kilometer in the west desert of Abydos.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that examination showed that these openings are entrances to carved out chambers, which probably have sacred religious importance.

Some openings lead to one chamber, while others lead to groups of two, three, and five chambers.

The groups are interconnected by narrow doorways cut through the bedrock wall. The chambers are rarely more than 1.20 meters high and are undecorated, but most have cut-rock features such as shallow niches, benches, rows of circular depressions or troughs cut in the floor, and many small holes in the walls just below the ceiling.

Besides most of the opening, Waziri said, are ropes or handholds.

Some of the chambers are enlargements of natural tunnels in the bedrock created by water flowing over thousands of years.

The cliff chambers are cut above deep vertical well-like shafts that follow natural water tunnels down into the bedrock, but these are now blocked by debris.

There is no evidence of burials inside any of the chambers, and they do not appear to have been tombs. Material evidence for the function of the complex is scant.

A single graffiti in one of the chambers gives the names of one Khuusu-n-Hor, his mother Amenirdis, and grandmother Nes-Hor.

These names, as well as the pottery found in and around the chambers, suggests that the complex probably dates to the Ptolemaic period, 332-30 BCE.

The only carved decoration consists of two small but unusual figures cut in bas relief on the side of one entry point.

Matthew Adams of the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and co-director of the North Abydos Expedition, who is collaborating with the survey mission, suggests that the chambers’ location inside the sacred valley of Abydos and their hard-to-reach position high on a cliff means that they may have had great religious significance.

The exploration of the area is at a preliminary stage, and much additional research and on-the-ground work will be needed.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Restoration of Sicily’s Temple of Zeus Continues

Restoration of Sicily’s Temple of Zeus Continues

Archaeology org reports that the ruins of a 26-foot-tall sculpture of Atlas dated to the fifth century B.C. will be reinstalled at the Greek Temple of Zeus at Agrigento, a city once inhabited by as many as 100,000 people.

The Atlas statue will soon be raised upright to stand in front of the temple.

According to Greek mythology, Atlas, a Titan, was forced to carry the sky on his shoulders after he was defeated by the Olympian Zeus.

In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan or god who was forced to bear the sky on his shoulders after being defeated by Zeus, one of the next generation of gods called Olympians.

The eight meters high statue, installed in the Vth century BC, was one of about 40 that decorated the ancient city, considered to be the largest  Doric temple ever built, even if it was never completed and now lies in ruins.

“The reinstalment of the statue of Atlas is the culmination of a more comprehensive restoration [of the temple],” says Roberto Sciarretta, director of the archaeological park.

“In the last decade, we’ve recovered and catalogued numerous artefacts that were once a part of the original structure … The goal is to recompose piece-by-piece the trabeation [beams] of the Temple of Zeus to restore a portion of its original splendour.”

 A view of Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples.

Archaeologists and architects will soon start work to raise the statue in Sicily’s Valley of the Temples on the occasion of the founding of the ancient city of Akragas (now Agrigento) 2,600 years ago.

It was one of the leading population centres in the region during the golden age of Ancient Greece and holds seven well-preserved Greek temples.

Built on a high ridge over a span of 100 years, they remain among the most magnificent examples of Greek architecture. In the 5th century, more than 100,000 people lived there and, according to the philosopher Empedocles, they would “party as if they’ll die tomorrow, and build as if they will live forever”.

The city was destroyed in 406 BC by the Carthaginians, and its prosperity did not return until the rise of Timoleon in the late third century BC. During the Punic Wars, the Carthaginians defended the settlement against the Romans, who seized control of the city in 210 BC.

During the Roman era, the city – renamed Agrigentum (subsequently known as Girgenti) – underwent a period of monumental urban redevelopment with new public buildings, including at least two temples.

Over the centuries, brickwork from the old monuments of the ancient city was taken for use in the construction of the buildings around Girgenti and the ancient harbour of Porto Empedocle.

Historians also maintained that the Temple of Zeus was never finished because it was still lacking a roof when Akragas was conquered by the Carthaginians.

Outside the temple, huge statues of Atlas were frozen in the act of supporting the temple.

“The idea is to reposition one of these Atlases in front of the temple,” says Sciarratta, “so that it may serve as a guardian of the structure dedicated to the father of the gods.”

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Ancient Aztec palace unearthed in Mexico City

Ancient Aztec palace unearthed in Mexico City

Ancient Aztec palace unearthed in Mexico City
Archaeologists say the floor is likely to have formed part of a courtyard

The historic Nacional Monte de Piedad building in Mexico City appears to cover much more than low-interest pawn loans to those in need. As it turns out, the building actually stands on the remains of an Aztec palace.

According to USA Today, the discovery occurred during an inspection by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Experts found basalt slabs on the property that they now believe to be part of the palace’s main courtyard, which later became home to Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

The palace, found under a historic pawnshop, was also used by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés
The floors were part of open space in Axayácatl’s palace

In addition to the sheer architectural wonder of the find, the discovery provides a historic glimpse into a world long gone and insight into how the empire changed as the Spanish infiltrated it.

“They [the Spaniards] remodeled a room to celebrate mass, and right there, they also held various rulers captive,” said INAH in a statement. “Starting with their distinguished host: Moctezuma Xocoyotzin.”

The palace was constructed for the Aztec ruler Axayáctl, who oversaw the capital city of Tenochtitlan from 1469 to 1481. Axayáctl’s son was Moctezuma II, one of the empire’s last rulers who was killed in 1520.

The Nacional Monte de Piedad was built in the 1770s and has since become a charity, pawn shop, and loan provider.

Though archaeologists had previously identified parts of the palace over the last two decades, the recent discovery of the building’s foundation was a milestone.

“Given its characteristics, the specialists deduced that it was part of an open space in the former Palace of Axayáctl, probably a courtyard,” the INAH statement continued. “While in that palace, numerous events took place,” including perhaps the death of Moctezuma himself.

The basalt slabs were first found in September 2017 as officials were making preliminary efforts to refurbish the National Monte de Piedad. The entire following year was essentially spent on unearthing the rest of the foundation to assess and authenticate these remnants.

In addition to the palace, experts found the remains of a house built by Cortés after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521.

The Spanish ruthlessly ordered the Aztecs to destroy their temples and palaces upon taking control, while using the same materials to build entirely new structures — like this house.

“These premises, like so many other structures of the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan, were destroyed by the Spanish and their indigenous allies, almost to their foundations,” INAH explained.

The institute added that the conquistador and his troops inhabited the new home for numerous years. It even became the first seat of their new government in 1525.

Now, nearly 500 years later, that same site serves as a national charity, pawnshop, and loan provider.

Excavations in Mexico continue to astound experts in the region. Recently, pre-hispanic sweat lodges used by the Mexica people to worship deities were unearthed in Mexico City.

Ultimately, these discoveries show how history can vanish in a blink — and resurface just as suddenly centuries later.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

CT Scan of Siberian Mummy Reveals Wounds and Tattoos

CT Scan of Siberian Mummy Reveals Wounds and Tattoos

Male Tashtyk mask is kept in the State Hermatage Museum. CT of the mask layer.

He was from the mountainous region of modern-day Khakasia, aged 25 to 30 when he died 1,700 years ago. Another CT scan showed the face of his gypsum death mask that was all the rage with the ancient Tashtyk people, who were settled cattle-breeders and farmers known for their idiosyncratic burial rituals.

The scan gives it a red punk look but it is believed that the pigtail it was wearing would have been taken off before his death. He is also the only Tashtyk mummy so far found with tattoos.  But the most striking and unexpected aspect is a long suture on the side of his face: from the left eye to the ear.

A scar that had been sewn up. 

The most striking and unexpected aspect is a long scar on the side of his face: from the left eye to the ear.

Archaeologists want more research on this but the current best guess is that this suture was stitched after his death – perhaps to mend his disfigured face after a wound, possibly a fatal blow. In other words, to improve his looks before his journey to the afterlife.  Final confirmation is still needed that this facial embroidery was postmortem, however. For now, it is not ruled out that this repair job was done at the end of his life. 

Dr Svetlana Pankova put the male head into the CT scan.

Nor was this the only evidence of intervention by ancient surgeons on this Tashtyk man found at the Oglakhty burial ground, and laid to rest in a burial log house.  His skull was trepanned in the temporal area on the left side,’ explained Dr. Svetlana Pankova, curator at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and keeper of the Siberian collection of the Department of Archeology.

The hole is rather big – 6 by 7 centimetres. It was made postmortem.  Expert analysis shows the hole was made by the series of blows with a chisel type or hammer type tool.’ Dr Pankova said: ‘We think that it was made to remove the brain during an elaborate burial rite.’ Likewise, she thinks the facial scar can be explained in similar fashion. 

‘His skull was trepanned in the temporal area on the left side.’

‘They took all these postmortem rites very seriously, and did not save on this,’ she said.   They could not just put a mask on the disfigured face. It would be great to attract an experienced surgeon to research this suture, to get full clarity.  Was it postmortem or might it have been made in his lifetime? 

‘Our research is complicated by the fact that we cannot take the mask away from the face (it would cause too much damage)  so we must research this stitching using other methods. The archaeologists were intrigued to finally see the face under the death mask, the painting of which ‘adds some unnecessary emotional impressions’

Male mask has black stripes on a red background, plus the lower part of the mask was destroyed and man’s teeth can be seen.

Dr Pankova said the mask ‘has black stripes on a red background, plus the lower part of the mask was somewhat destroyed and man’s teeth can be seen. 

‘So all together it creates such an aggressive look.’ Yet under the mask ‘there was nothing aggressive in this face. 

‘It was the face of a calmly sleeping person. 

‘It was the face of calmly sleeping person.’

‘The mask was very close in appearance to the real face.

‘For the first time we see the real face of a young man of this time.

‘The computer scan allowed us to see, so to say, three layers – the layer of the mask, the layer of the face without the mask and layer of the skull.’ The face of the woman lying in the same burial chamber – also buried in a fur coat – has not been revealed with a CT scan.

Svetlana Pankova: ‘I would really like to make CT scan of female mummified head.’

Or anyway not yet. 

‘I would really like to make CT scan of female mummified head,’ she said. I’m planning to find a clinic which can do this research and decipher it for us.’ For now, we do not know who the woman was and how she and the man were related. 

Children’s fur coat was also found in the grave

A child’s skeleton was also found in the same grave. 

So, too, were two burial ‘dummies’ – an extraordinary phenomenon akin to stuffed dolls or mannequins.  These may be explained by the merging of two cultures or traditions: one that buried their dead, the other that cremated.  The dummies appear to represent the remains of those who were cremated. Yet there is also evidence that men were more usually cremated while women and children were buried. 

He is also the only Tashtyk mummy so far found with tattoos. Infrared photography.

‘The dummies in full height, kind of mannequins, were made of leather, filled with tightly twisted grass,’ said Dr. Pankova.

‘In the chest area, there were leather pouches with charred bones remaining from cremations.’ She told The Siberian Times: ‘The mummies, male and female, were dressed in fur coats, and they had masks on their faces. The head of one of the dummies did not preserve. 

‘The dummies in full height, kind of mannequins, were made of leather, filled with tightly twisted grass

‘Sadly, probably rodents sneaked in and spoiled it. The second dummy has the face, covered with bright red woollen fabric, with eyes and a nose. On the head was a piece of Chinese silk.’  The Tashtyk culture existed between the first and seventh centuries AD in the area of so-called Minusinsk Basin of the Yenisei valley.

‘The second dummy has the face, covered with bright red woolen fabric, with eyes and a nose. On the head was a piece of Chinese silk.’

They were settled cattle breeders and farmers.

In 1969 Professor Leonid Kyzlasov excavated the Oglakhty burial ground and found this masked man in tomb number four. We made the radiocarbon dating using larch of the log house indicating the third to fourth centuries AD.’ The Oglakhty necropolis was originally found in 1902 by a shepherd, who fell into one of the graves, saw the people in a wooden chamber with whitish masks on their faces, got scared, and fled.

In 1969 Professor Leonid Kyzlasov excavated the Oglakhty burial ground and found this masked man in tomb number four.

His mother-in-law was more fearless, sneaking in, and looting some items. A local official and researcher Alexander Adrianov heard about this and started excavations in 1903, unearthing three graves.

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

1.4-Million-Year-Old Bone Hand Ax Identified

1.4-Million-Year-Old Bone Hand Ax Identified

According to a BBC report, paleoanthropologists Katsuhiro Sano of Tohoku University and Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo have identified a 1.4-million-year-old hand ax made from a hippo’s leg bone at Ethiopia’s Konso-Gardula site. Tools at the site are thought to have been crafted by the human ancestor Homo erectus. 

A 1.4-million-year-old bone hand ax found in East Africa (shown from both sides) expands the known toolmaking repertoire of Homo erectus, scientists say. Hardened sediment attached to the artifact is lighter colored than the tool.

Approximately 1.4 million years ago, researchers claim, Homo erectus, a likely direct ancestor of people today, crafted an unexpectedly cutting – edge tool from a hippo’s leg bone.

This find is a rare example of an ancient type of hand ax made out of bone rather than stone, reports a team led by paleoanthropologists Katsuhiro Sano of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo.

The tool was discovered at Ethiopia’s Konso-Gardula site, which has produced stone tools and fossils attributed to H. Erectus.

Along with a variety of stone tools now recognized at several East African sites (SN: 3/4/20), the bone hand ax “suggests that Homo erectus technology was more sophisticated and versatile than we had thought,” Suwa says.

Taken together, these finds show that, perhaps several hundred thousand years earlier than previously known, the H. Erectus toolkit consisted of items requiring a series of precise operations to manufacture, such as stone and bone hand axes, as well as simpler tools that could be made relatively quickly.

H. Erectus at Konso-Gardula modified a chunk of a hippo’s leg bone so that a roughly 13-centimeter-long oval piece with a sharp edge near the tip could be struck off in one blow from a stone or bone hammer, the researchers conclude July 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

One or more toolmakers then chipped off the bone from the artifact to render its final shape. Signs of wear indicate that the hand ax was used in cutting or sawing activities.

Only one other bone hand ax of comparable age has been found. That roughly 1.3- to 1.6-million-year-old implement, from Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, contains fewer signs of chipping and shaping than the Konso-Gardula hand ax does, the scientists say.

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