ENGLAND, EUROPE, NETHERLANDS, WORLD

17th-century Dutch merchant ship off southern England have recovered a 30-foot-long wooden carving of a mustachioed warrior

17th-century Dutch merchant ship off southern England have recovered a 30-foot-long wooden carving of a mustachioed warrior

Archeologists greeted a carving of the face of a moustachio warrior as they lifted part of a huge shipwreck in the 17th century in the English Channel The head was carved into the 28 ft long section of the rudder of a Dutch trading ship that sunk nearly 400 years earlier in Poole, Dorset.

Its accidental discovery by a dredger led to six years of underwater investigations, which prompted experts to hail the find as the most significant since the Mary Rose. Divers found the sizable carving covering the stern and bow castle of the 130ft-long merchant vessel, which would have been one of the largest of its kind on the seas at the time.

It was decked out with opulent carvings of mermen whose eye sockets would have been decorated with precious stones. Other baroque-style carvings, similar to the one on the rudder, were also found on parts of the ship including the gunports.

The head was carved into the 28ft long rudder section of a Dutch trading ship that sunk off Poole, Dorset, nearly 400 years ago

Marine archaeologists from Bournemouth University have already recovered scores of artifacts from the vessel that is known as the Swash Channel Wreck after the area of sea where it sunk.

And after being given a grant of £500,000 from English Heritage, the team completed the recovery of the five-tonne wooden rudder that had become separated from the main hull.

Divers spent seven days digging the rudder from out of the sea bed and placing a large steel frame around it, similar to the operation that raised the Mary Rose in 1982.

Divers (pictured right) found the sizable carving (left) covering the stern and bowcastle of the 130ft long merchant vessel, which would have been one of the largest of its kind on the seas at the time
Marine archaeologists from Bournemouth University have already recovered scores of artefacts from the vessel that is known as the Swash Channel Wreck after the area of sea where it sunk. The black squares indicate the gunport locations

It was then towed four miles into Poole Harbour where today it was hoisted onto the quayside by a crane in front of the excited team of archaeologists.

The baroque facial carving at the end of the rudder shows a military man wearing a classical helmet. It will be constantly sprayed with special chemicals for the next two years to help conserve it.

The rudder will then put on display at Poole Museum alongside other artifacts recovered from the wreckage. Dave Parham, a senior lecturer in marine archaeology at Bournemouth University, said: ‘Before now we had just seen the rudder underwater where you could only make out a few feet of it at a time.

The rudder is being temporarily stored at Poole docks, before being transported to York. It was towed four miles into Poole Harbour where today it was hoisted onto the quayside (pictured) by a crane in front of the excited team of archaeologists

‘So to see it in daylight in all its glory is really quite spectacular.

‘It is a very large and impressive item itself so you can imagine how spectacular this merchant vessel would have looked.

‘Its discovery is an extremely significant one and has given way to one of the largest shipwreck investigations within the UK.’

Another carving previously discovered at the wreck of the Dutch trading ship near Poole, Dorset

Unlike the Mary Rose, little is known of the Swash Channel Wreck, including its identity. Tests on the oak wood from it have dated the felling of the timber to 1628 and from forests on the Dutch/German border. Analysis of some of the recovered artifacts dates to the middle of the 17th century.

This has led the experts to believe the vessel was an armed Dutch trading ship that was either going to or returning from the Mediterranean or the Far East. It is thought it hit a sandbank in the approaches to Poole Harbour and water flooded its bilges. The ship is then believed to have rolled over and sunk in 22ft of water.

Mr. Parham said: ‘It would have been a very big vessel for its day and the whole vessel would have been a spectacular work of art.

It was a sign of prestige and wealth. It was making a statement, showing how great and wonderful the owners were. They would have been a large Dutch conglomerate, similar to the East India Company.

Mr Parham said the ship could be compared to a 17th century version of the luxurious Titanic liner, although the Titanic was ornate for passengers, and not just for those viewing the ship. A carving of a merman is pictured (right) and (wreckage) left

‘It would not have been a million miles from a 17th-century version of the Titanic, although the Titanic was ornate for the passengers and not for those on the outside.

‘We think it was a Dutch trading ship and would have taken high-quality European goods like tweed to the Far East and traded them for things like exotic spices.

It was either going out or coming back when it sank outside of Poole Harbour. We have received a grant to fund the recovery of all the material that is at risk of erosion.

So far the team has brought up artifacts including five baroque carvings, ceramic pieces, leather shoes, copper and pewter plates and cups, and a bronze compass divider. They have also recovered animal bones of sheep and cows that would have fed the crew.

Mr. Parham said: ‘Last month we spent seven days excavating beneath the rudder in order to put strops around it and lift it into a steel frame.

It was then moved four miles to the quayside in Poole and lifted out of the water. We have no idea who the male carving on the rudder might be. It is a mustachioed man with a classical helmet on so it is depicting a military man of some sort. About 40 percent of the port side of the wreck lies intact on the sea bed but it will be too costly an operation to recover that.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Roman Ovens, Late Period Wall Discovered In Luxor

Roman Ovens, Late Period Wall Discovered In Luxor

LUXOR, EGYPT—According to an Ahram Online report, several structures were uncovered during an excavation at the Avenue of Sphinxes, a ceremonial passageway lined with ram-headed sculptures that once connected temples in Luxor and Karnak.

Mudbrick kilns dating to the Roman period (30 B.C.–A.D. 640) are thought to have been used to fire pottery. A wall dated to the Egyptian Late Period (712–332 B.C.) 

The Egyptian archaeological mission revealed during the works of the project to restore and revive the major historical road known as the Rams Road, a number of round ovens for burning mud-brick with burning marks, and a huge wall of mud bricks from the Roman and Late Periods.

Dr.. Mustafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that these furnaces and fences were found in the Nag Abu Asbah area, and perhaps the furnaces were used in the manufacture of pottery or faience.

As for the wall, it was found west of the procession road of the Temple of Khonsu, about 30 meters high and two and a half meters wide and 3 wide Meters, and consists of 17 courses of mud bricks.

The mission also found a wall that was built from 3 sandstone blocks, which is an extension of the wall that was protecting the eastern bank of the Nile from changing levels of the Nile River during seasons of flooding and burning.

This wall extends from the front of Karnak Temple in the north to Luxor Temple in the south alongside The Great Procession Road is about 3 kilometers long.

Dr. Waziri agreed that the work team has taken all necessary measures to prevent and protect from the new Coronavirus, during the explorations, as all of the project workers are wearing masks and taking social spaces in the course of drilling.

It is worth noting that the excavation work in various areas of the Rams road has been ongoing since 2017 in order to unveil all the rams in it within the framework of the road rehabilitation project, in preparation for its opening soon.

EUROPE, UKRAINE, WORLD

A rare Scythian Husband and wife pair burial from around 1,000 BC Such a beautiful Eternal Embrace

A rare Scythian Husband and wife pair burial from around 1,000 BC Such a beautiful, eternal embrace

An ancient man and woman have been found locked in a loving embrace for 3,000 years in a grave in Ukraine. Archaeologists believe the woman was willingly entombed alive in order to accompany her husband to the next world.

The extraordinary burial sees the couple clasped together since the Bronze Age. The pair, from the prehistoric Vysotskaya – or Wysocko – Culture were found near Petrykiv village, south of the city of Ternopil in western Ukraine.

Professor Mykola Bandrivsky – who conducted a study of ‘loving couple burials’ – said: “It is a unique burial, a man and a woman lying there, hugging each other tight.

“Both faces were gazing at each other, their foreheads were touching.

“The woman was lying on her back, with her right arm she was tenderly hugging the man, her wrist lying on his right shoulder.

“The legs of the woman were bent at the knees – lying on the top of the men’s stretched legs.

“Both the dead humans were clad in bronze decorations, and near the heads was placed some pottery items – a bowl, a jar and three bailers.”

This ancient culture was known for the “tenderness” of its burials, said Dr. Bandrivsky, Director of the Transcarpathian branch of the Rescue Archaeological Service of the Institute of Archeology of Ukraine.

Both the dead humans were clad in bronze decorations

But this example is very striking as autopsy experts say it would not be possible to place the woman’s body in such a loving position if she was already dead.

The experts say it is likely the woman chose to die and be buried with her husband and drank poison as she climbed into the grave and embraced her recently dead husband.

In other cases, burials from this culture have revealed “a man holding the hands of a woman, the lips of a man touching the forehead of a woman, or arms of both dead people hugging each other”.

The pair were from the prehistoric Vysotskaya – or Wysocko – Culture

Dr. Bandrovsky – who has carried out an analysis of such burials – said: “From our point of view, this woman did it voluntarily.

“Maybe, the woman did not want to live with some other man and get used to some new way of life.

“So she preferred to pass away with her husband.

“We suppose such a decision was dictated only by her own desire, and her attempt to stay with her beloved one.”

He added: “She may, for example, have drunk a chalice of poison to make joining her husband easy and painless.”

Marriage was well developed in the Vysotskaya Culture, with husbands and wives having clearly defined responsibilities, he said. A tenet of their beliefs was the idea that thew woman preferred to die with her man.

“People in the Late Bronze Age believed in the eternal life of the human soul.”

The renowned Ukrainian archeologist said: “It is interesting that in other parts of Europe dead men and women in couple burials were laid next to each other.

“But in the Vysotskaya culture, the couples in double graves were arranged in a way to demonstrate the tenderness and greatest sympathy towards each other.”

GUATEMALA, MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA

The tomb of Mayan “God-King” discovered in Guatemala, his status determined by the carved jade mask

The tomb of Mayan “God-King” discovered in Guatemala, his status determined by the carved jade mask

The grave of an old Mayan king was found in the pre – Columbian El Perú-Waka ‘s site in Guatemala by archeologists. The royal tomb, dating back to 300–350AD, was the oldest in the northwest part of the Petén region

“We agree this could be one of the first rulers of the Wak empire, even if estimates are preliminary and need further study,” archeologist Griselda Perez Robles told LiveScience via email.

Together with two colleagues, Pérez Robles helped lead the tunnel excavations in the Acropolis of the site and the findings were carried out.

The jade mask found in Burial 80 at the El Perú-Waka’ Regional Archaeological Project in Guatemala. Courtesy of Proyecto Arqueológico Waka’ and the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala.

“Excavations from outside the building took 76 days of uninterrupted work,” Pérez Robles added, noting that the discovery of the tomb itself took place on day 65 and required eight intensive days of work.

“We removed one of the rocks and could see a funeral chamber with bone remains. Their offerings were covered with cinnabar, which indicated that it was a personage of royalty.”

The discovery of Burial 80 at the El Perú-Waka’ Regional Archaeological Project in Guatemala. Courtesy of Proyecto Arqueológico Waka’ and the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala.

The tomb, the seventh to be found at the site, has been named Burial 80. It contained a carved jade mask that depicts the departed ruler as the Maya god of maize, as well as 22 ceramic vessels, Spondylus shells, jade ornaments, and a shell pendant carved in the shape of a crocodile.

“The Classic Maya revered their divine rulers and treated them as living souls after death,” David Freidel told the Source at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is a professor of anthropology.

“This king’s tomb helped to make the royal palace acropolis holy ground, a place of majesty, early in the history of the Wak dynasty.”

Excavation of Burial 39 at El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala, Left to right: Jennifer Piehl, Michelle Rich, and Varinia Matute

Located at the intersection of the San Pedro and San Juan rivers, El Perú-Waka’ was a key area of commercial exchange in Petén in ancient times.

“The discovery of Burial 80 allows us to get closer to the knowledge of the first centuries of the site, when it was in development, although it already had an established social organization and a complex ideological system,” said Pérez.

Excavations have been ongoing at the El Perú-Waka’ Regional Archaeological Project since 2003. 

“The site, given its history and influence in the region, is extraordinary,” said Pérez Robles. “It would not be surprising if further findings of great relevance continue to be uncovered.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

900,000-year-old footprints of earliest northern Europeans discovered

900,000-year-old footprints of earliest northern Europeans discovered

Footprints left behind by what may be one of our first human ancestors to arrive in Britain have been discovered on a beach in Norfolk. The preserved tracks, which consisted of 49 imprints in soft sedimentary rock, are believed to be around 900,000 years old and could transform scientists understanding of how early humans moved around the world.

The footprints on Happisburgh beach are possibly those of a family in search of food

The footprints were found in what scientists have described as a “million to one” discovery last summer when heavy seas washed the sand off the foreshore in Happisburgh, Norfolk. The find has only now been made public and is thought to be the oldest evidence of early humans in northern Europe yet to be discovered.

Africa cave men settled in Norfolk Anthropologists and evolutionary biologists from around the UK have been studying the tracks, and believe they may have been related to an extinct form of human ancestor known as Homo antecessor, or “Pioneer Man”.

The tracks include up to five different prints, indicating a group of both adults and children walked across the ancient wet estuary silt. They are the earliest direct evidence of human ancestors in the area and may belong to some of the first ever Britons. Until now the oldest human remains to be found in Europe all come from around the far south of the continent, including stone tools found in southern Italy and a tooth found in Spain.

Skull fragments from that are around 780,000 years old hominid – the term used by scientists for early humans – were also found in southern Spain. Previously the oldest evidence of humans in Britain were a set of stone tools dated to 700,000 years ago from near Lowestoft in Suffolk, although more recently stone tools were also discovered at the site in Happisburgh.

Dr Nick Ashton, curator of the department of prehistory of Europe at the British Museum and an archaeologist at University College London, said: “These are the oldest human footprints outside Africa. It is an extremely rare and lucky discovery.

“The slim chance of surviving in the first place, the sea exposing it in the right way and thirdly us finding it at the right time – I’d say it was a million to one find. “Footprints give you a tangible link that stone tools and even human remains cannot replicate. “We were able to build up a picture of what five individuals were doing on one day. “The Happisburgh site continues to re-write our understanding of the early human occupation of Britain and indeed Europe.”

The discovery was unveiled at the British Museum in London and in the scientific journal PLOS One and will feature in a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum. There are only three other sites in the world that have older footprints, all of which are in Africa – a set is 3.5 million years old in Tanzania and some that are 1.5 million years old in Kenya. The Happisburgh prints were uncovered at low tide after stormy seas removed large amounts of sand from the beach to reveal a series of elongated hollows in the compacted ancient silt.

The prints were first noticed when a low tide uncovered them
The sea has now washed away the prints – but not before they were recorded

Scientists removed the remaining sand and sponged off the seawater before taking 3D scans and images of the surface. In some cases, researchers were able to identify heel marks, foot arches, and even toes from the prints. They found prints equivalent to up to a UK shoe size eight. They also estimate that the individuals who left the prints ranged from around two feet 11 inches tall to five feet eight inches tall. At least two or three of the group were thought to be children and one was possibly an adult male.

Dr Isabelle De Groote, an anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University who studied the prints, said: “We have identified at least five individuals here.

“It is likely they were somehow related, and if they were not direct family members they will have belonged to the same family group. “The footprints were fairly close together so we think they were walking rather than running. Most were directly alongside the river in a southerly direction but also there were some going in all different directions like they were pottering around.

“If you imagine walking along a beach now with children then they would be running around.”

Unfortunately the prints themselves were quickly eroded away by the sea and have now been lost. Happisburgh is one of the fastest eroding parts of the British coastline. The Environment Agency and local authority decided some years ago to abandon maintenance of the sea defences there as it was no longer considered to be cost effective.

Scientists hope, however, that as further parts of the coastline are eroded more evidence of human activity and perhaps more footprints will be uncovered. From their analysis of the prints, researchers believe the group was probably heading in a southerly direction over what would at the time have been an estuary surrounded by salt marsh and coniferous forest.

At the time Britain was connected to continental Europe by land and the site at Happisburgh would have been on the banks of a wide estuary several miles from the coast. The estuary itself would have provided a rich array of plants, seaweed and shellfish. Fossils of mammoth, an extinct kind of horse and early forms of voles have also been found at the site Happisburgh.

The early humans could also have hunted or scavenged the grazing herds for meat. The discovery of the footprints is particularly significant as there are few surviving tracks of human ancestors elsewhere in the world. Scientists can glean large amounts of information about our ancestors, including the size of the groups they travelled in, how they walked, their size and weight.

The prints were discovered in deposits that have also revealed stone tools and fossilized bones dating to between 800,000 and one million years ago. Dr. Simon Lewis, a geoarchaeologist at the Queen Mary University of London, said: “Although we knew the sediments were old, we had to be certain that the hollows were also ancient and hadn’t been created recently.

There are no known erosional processes that create that pattern. In addition, the sediments are too complicated for the hollows to have been made recently.” Early primitive human ancestors first began to appear in Africa around 4.4 million years ago and are thought to have only left the continent around 1.8 million years ago and are not thought to have arrived in Europe until around 1 million years ago. Extinct species such as the Neanderthals appeared first appeared between 400,000 and 600,000 years ago, while modern humans – Homo sapiens – first began to emerge from Africa around 125,000 years ago but did not arrive in Europe until around 40,000 years ago.

It is thought that the footprints may have belonged to a relative of a Homo antecessor – an extinct hominid species that may have been a common ancestor to both modern humans and Neanderthals, although such theories are still highly disputed.

Remains from Homo antecessor were discovered in the Atapuerca Mountains in Spain. Professor Chris Stringer, an eminent anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London who worked with the team, said: “The humans who made the Happisburgh footprints may well have been related to the people of similar antiquity from Atapuerca in Spain, assigned to the species Homo antecessor.

“These people were of a similar height to ourselves and were fully bipedal. They seem to have become extinct in Europe by 600,000 years ago and were perhaps replaced by the species Homo heidelbergensis.

“Neanderthals followed from about 400,000 years ago and eventually modern humans some 40,000 years ago.”

AUSTRALIA, WORLD

Late 19th-Century Brisbane’s original Chinatown found under Albert Street in Australia

Late 19th-Century Brisbane’s original Chinatown found under Albert Street in Australia

QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA – The Archeology org document in Brisbane, a town located on the East Coast of Australia, that more than 200 objects from the end of the 19th century, including tobacco and opium pipes, bottles, crockery, books, and animal bones, have been unearthed in Brisbane.

The Niché Environment and Heritage archeologist Kevin Rains believed that the site was the original Chinatown area in the town and that artifacts belonged to the people who went there at the end of the 1880s gold rush and founded a working-class community called Frog’s Hollow.

Frog’s Hollow was the boggy, low-lying area that ran from the bottom of Albert Street near the Botanic Gardens towards Elizabeth Street and stretching two or three blocks either side of Albert Street.

The 9 Holes section of Brisbane’s Albert Street with Mary Street in the mid-background.

Dr. Rains, who works for Niche Environment, said the “significant archaeological finds” were “absolutely invaluable” to learn about Brisbane’s earliest days.

“Queensland was a later colony. There was a lot of diversity and development and a lot of ‘get up and go’,” he said.

“There was a lot of wealth even in those early days. People were already building up strong businesses.”

About 200 artifacts – tobacco and opium pipes, leather goods, bottles, crockery, old books, skeletons of animals, walls and pipes, and a perfume container – have all been unearthed. Some small containers held pickles and soya sauce, Dr. Rains said.

“It is equivalent to the Rocks area of Sydney or Little Lonsdale street in Melbourne,” he said.

“It was a working-class area, but also highly multicultural, with people of British and European backgrounds but also Chinese, South Sea Islanders and people from other parts of Asia living there as well.

Chinese leather works found under Lower Albert Street during Cross River rail excavation team.
Chinese leather works found under Lower Albert Street during Cross River rail excavation team.

“It had food shops, opium dens, hotels, lots of boarding houses, and a mix of grocers, all sorts of things.

“We have found evidence of a saddlery – Robert Schute’s Saddlery – and a leather shoemaker.” Large numbers of Chinese, who came to Queensland for the gold at Gympie, eventually returned to Brisbane.

“In Queensland the gold rushes began to peter out around the 1880s and there was legislation keeping them from prospecting and working on the gold fields, so a lot of them moved into Brisbane and began setting up business there,” Dr Rains said.

One of two excavation sites on Brisbane’s Albert Street where artifacts from Brisbane earliest days have been found.

One foundation wall unearthed by the excavation crew working on Albert Street comes from the Gympie Hotel, which later became Brannelly’s Oriental Hotel in 1885.

“We found old walls on both sides of the [Albert] street,” Dr Rains said.

“We found some of the foundations of the original Gympie Hotel on the left-hand side and we’ve also found wall and floors from the old saddlery and the Nine Holes shops on the other side.

“Nine Holes was was row of shops on the north side of Albert Street where the [Cross River Rail] station is being built today and Brannelly’s Colonial Hotel was on the other side, the southern side.” The Frog’s Hollow excavation work was completed in January 2020.

An old stone wall uncovered as the Cross River Rail’s Albert Street station is built.

“A bit after that we did all the analysis of all the actual artefacts and I’m in the process now of writing up the report for the state government,” Dr Rains said. Dr Rains said archaeologists very much hoped to find parts of early Brisbane as the excavation work for Cross River Rail.

“But we were not sure. We knew some of the buildings that were built along Albert Street in the 1920s, now demolished, had fairly shallow foundations, so there was a lot of potential for a lot of earlier material to be underneath it,” he said.

“The big surprise was Brannelly’s Oriental Hotel because they built a 1970s building – which they demolished in the 1980s – over the top of it.

“It was built on the same spot as the Gympie Hotel – corner of Albert and Mary streets – and it [the Gympie Hotel] got redeveloped in 1885 as Branelly’s Oriental Hotel.

Looking down Albert Street’s Frog Hollow   during the 1893 Floods towards the Oriental Hotel on Mary Street.

“It was built from stone and brick. But in the 1980s it got demolished and a 1980s-style corporate tower got built there.

“Its a bit of a shame. The photos show it had lovely iron lacework that there was during those times. It was like the Bellevue Hotel, the same period.

“So while we didn’t think we would find a lot because the big corporate towers were built, we did find a lot of the foundations, which was very good.”

EUROPE, ICELAND, WORLD

Archaeologists have unearthed what may be the oldest Viking settlement in Iceland

Archaeologists have unearthed what may be the oldest Viking settlement in Iceland

It is thought that the ancient longhouse was built in the 800s, decades before seafaring refugees had settled the island and was hidden beneath a younger longhouse,  brimming with treasures, said archaeologist Bjarni Einarsson, who led the excavations.

The youngest of the two longhouses contained the most valuable horde of objects ever found in Iceland and was probably the hall of a Viking chieftain.
The oldest of the two Viking longhouses at Stöð dates from around A.D. 800, several decades before the commonly accepted date of the settlement of Iceland in A.D. 874.

“So far the richest is the youngest hall in Iceland,” Einarsson told BBC. “It is impossible not to conclude that it is a chieftain’s house.”

Communal houses

The massive buildings, up to 75 meters long and 20 feet (6 meters) tall, lined with turf and thatch and were used as communal habitations throughout the Norse lands during the Viking Age.

They were divided into rooms and could be shared by several families. Fires were built in stone hearths along the center, and farm animals could be stabled there to protect them from cold.

Both longhouses were found at Stöð, near the village and fjord of Stöðvarfjörður in the east of Iceland. The younger structure dates to around A.D. 874 — the commonly accepted date for Iceland’s settlement by people, who, according to Icelandic lore, were escaping the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair. It contains one of the most valuable hoards of ornamental beads, silver and ancient coins ever found in Scandinavia, Einarsson said.

Among the finds: Roman and Middle Eastern silver coins, and “hacksilver,” which are cut and bent pieces of silver used as bullion or currency by the Vikings and other ancient peoples.

The excavations of the 130 foot-long (40 m) hall have also unearthed decorative glass beads, rings, weights, and a tiny fragment of gold, Einarsson said.

The inhabitants likely acquired these goods by trading local resources, such as the skins and meat from whales and seals, which were prized throughout Viking Scandinavia.

As well as Roman and Middle Eastern coins and pieces of silver, the excavations unearthed many decorative glass beads and a large sandstone bead that was probably used for trading.

Atlantic expansion

Hidden beneath the treasure-filled longhouse was an even older structure. Chemical and other analyses suggest this buried longhouse was built in the 800s, long before the permanent settlement of Iceland, Einarsson said.

He thinks it was a seasonal settlement or camp, occupied only during the summer and maybe into the fall, by workers in the area.

Although walruses were not found in eastern Iceland, the local resources that could be eaten, preserved, or traded could have included produce from fish, whales, seals, and birds, he said.

The archaeologists have also found artifacts from the everyday life of the settlement, including several spindle whorls made of local sandstone that was used for spinning fibers into thread or twine.

The archaeologists have also found artifacts from the everyday life of the settlement, including several spindle whorls made of local sandstone that was used for spinning fibers into thread or twine.

Parts of the older building investigated so far show it was one of the largest longhouses ever found in Iceland.

“We know that the westernmost part of the older hall was a smithy [for working with metal] — the only smithy within a hall known in Iceland,” Einarsson said.

The seasonal camp at Stöð was similar in scale and function to the Viking settlement discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows, in what is now Newfoundland in Canada, which has been dated to around A.D. 1000, he said.

“This was a pattern of the settlement of the islands in the Atlantic Ocean,” Einarsson said. “First, we had the seasonal camps, and then the settlement followed.”

Einarsson has directed a private archaeological firm for more than 20 years, and from 2009 excavated a Viking Age settlement at Vogur, on Iceland’s west coast, which depended on hunting walruses for their ivory, skins, and meat.

He discovered the longhouse ruins at Stöð in 2007 and began excavations at the site in 2015. The project is paid for by Iceland’s Archaeological Fund, the region’s municipal government, companies, and local people.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, ROMANIA, WORLD

Metal Detectorist Finds Rare Lost Roman Lead Ingot in Wales

Metal Detectorist Finds Rare Lost Roman Lead Ingot in Wales

In a field near Rossett, Rob Jones found the metal object, and a careful searching exposed the corner of a lead object with ‘writing’ on it.

The local find agent (NE Wales) has informed Mr. Jones who is from Codpoeth, Wrexham to the Wales Portable Antiquity Scheme (PAS Cymru) located in the Wrexham Museum. Archaeologists from both the Museum and the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust assessed what had been discovered.

The item discovered was a large lead ingot (approximately half a meter long and 63 kilograms weighed). The ‘writing’ reported by Mr. Jones was a cast Latin inscription confirming that it was Roman and about 2,000 years old.

The discovery is assessed alongside its finder, Metal detectorist Rob Jones.

The exploitation of Britain’s natural resources was one of the reasons cited by Roman authors for the invasion of Britain by Emperor Claudius in AD 43.

Lead ore or galena contains silver as well as lead, and both were valuable commodities for the Romans. Less than a hundred lead ingots of this type are known from the mines of Roman Britain.

The rare find is particularly significant for archaeologists and historians because of its potentially early date, the location of the findspot, and because of its unique inscription.

The lead was mined and processed in several areas of the new province including in north-east Wales where lead processing sites have been excavated near Flint, presumably smelting ores extracted from the nearby Halkyn Mountain.

A number of lead ingots of slightly later date are known from these works, often marked with the name of the local pre-Roman tribe called the Deceangli.

Susie White, the local Finds Officer (NE Wales) said: “It has been suggested in the past that similar exploitation took place in the Wrexham area around Minera and particularly Ffrith, where there is a known Roman site, although clear evidence is absent, probably as the result of more recent mining activity.

“We don’t yet know where this ingot has come from and we will probably never know where it was going to. However given the find spots of other ingots from Britain of similar date, it may have been destined for continental Europe, perhaps even Rome itself. The object could tell us a great deal about this important period of our past, a period which is still poorly understood in this area of the country.”

The inscription appears to mention one Marcus Trebellius Maximus, who was the governor of the province of Britannia under Emperor Nero from AD 63-69.

If genuine, the Rossett find represents the only example of an inscription bearing his name ever found in the UK and one of very few from the empire as a whole.

Trebellius was partly responsible for bringing stability to Britannia after Boudica’s revolt in AD 60/1, although he was ultimately forced out of the province by mutinous Roman soldiers who were dissatisfied with the lack of military activity under his governorship.

Councillor Hugh Jones, Lead Member for People at Wrexham Council commented “I’m delighted to be able to announce that Wrexham museum has acquired the ingot and I’d like to thank the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Headley Trust and the Friends of Wrexham Museums for their support with the acquisition which otherwise would not have been possible. Its acquisition will allow the ingot to be displayed in the town nearest to the place where it was lost and rediscovered.”

The museum together with the University of Chester is hoping to undertake archaeological work on the site of the discovery, as soon as the pandemic allows, to see if any further information can be gleaned as to the circumstances of its loss.

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