Rare cross-shaped reliquary unearthed from medieval knight’s home in Poland
While surveying the remnants of a medieval knight’s residence in Poland, archaeologists unearthed a plethora of artifacts, including a cross-shaped reliquary.
The cross-shaped medallion, known as an enkolpion, is a symbol of the Christian faith.
Archaeologists originally discovered the knight’s manor in June on the outskirts of Widów, a village in southern Poland.
An initial survey of the site revealed the remnants of a wooden tower that was destroyed but once sat on top of a hill sometime between the 13th and 15th centuries, according to Science in Poland, a news site that is a collaboration between reporters and the Polish government.
Further investigation of the archaeological site revealed the cross-shaped medallion, which is known as an enkolpion (also spelled encolpion and engolpion), which translates to “on the breast” in ancient Greek.
Made of copper alloy, the religious piece was an important symbol worn by Christians on their chests during medieval times and often contained quotations or illustrations from the Christian Bible, according to Science in Poland.
While researchers aren’t sure of the knight’s identity, they do know that enkolpia were part of the vestments, or garments and articles worn by Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic bishops, according to Science in Poland.
In addition to the cross, archaeologists found other military-related items, such as three iron stirrups, part of a horseshoe, crossbow arrows, remnants of cordage, or ropes.
They also unearthed a number of artifacts, some made of clay and some made of iron, that were part of the former residence, including a stove, door fixtures, a padlock and key, nails, hooks, and staples. Several silver coins and the remains of a belt were also found.
The former residence is part of a larger settlement that also contains the remains of a wooden church and a cemetery.
Archaeologists have been exploring the site since the mid-19th century, but much of the outpost has been “destroyed by agricultural activity,” according to Science in Poland.
Unique 3,000-Year-Old Logboat Found In River Tay – On Display In Perth Again
The story of the unique Late Bronze Age logboat started many years ago. It has taken scientists and other experts many years to recover, restore, and put the fascinating 9m (or 30 ft) long logboat on display. The logboat was previously on display in Perth for ten years but had to be moved as part of a year of work to repair and stabilize it.
The Carpow logboat.
The boat was officially discovered in 2001 by metal detectorists exploring the mudflats at Carpow during a summer of exceptionally low river levels. In 2006, the logboat was recovered from River Tay near Perth, Scotland.
Carved from a single 400-year-old oak tree trunk, the boat survived due to the peaty soil composition of the Perth and Tay Estuary area. An initial sample taken for radiocarbon dating returned a date of circa 1000 BC, some 3,000 years ago. The logboat is considered to be one of the oldest and best-preserved of its kind in Scotland.
The Carpow Logboat spent six years undergoing stabilization and drying at the National Museums Scotland collection center in Edinburgh.
“To conserve the boat for the long-term, the collective decision was taken to partially impregnate it with PEG (polyethylene glycol) to replace water and give the structure integrity, and then freeze dry it, to shorten that process a little. But at that time, the only freeze drier large enough to take it as a single piece was in Tokyo, Japan – sadly, not a practical proposition.
Instead, the boat was cut into three pieces, each put into its own tank and submersed in a solution of PEG for impregnation, a three-year process.
The logboat was previously on display at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery for ten years.
This was followed by several months of freeze-drying for each section, in the National Museum of Scotland freeze-dryer. This process removed a whopping 588 kg of water.
Differential distorting of the boat sections (where different bits of the boat warp at different rates) occurred when the boat was cut, releasing lots of pent-up tension in the wood and leading to twisting and cracking as it dried.
The conservation team innovatively devised a method of correcting this that used flexible heating mats and an adjustable aluminium former (a piece of adjustable aluminium that applies pressure to the boat as it is heated so as to bend it back into shape). This allowed the team to mould the boat back close to its original shape,” Dig It Scotland reports.
The boat’s conservation work has been long and demanding.
“Although it’s large and heavy, it’s also very fragile, making the conservation work rather complex.
The wood naturally wants to relax and flatten out, so we’ve had to gently warm it up, making it more pliable and allowing us to reshape it.
The small details I’ve noticed are incredible; footrests for the pilot, for example, which really made me think about the people who used it,” Charles Stable, artifact conservator at National Museums Scotland told the BBC.
The 3,000-year-old logboat is returning back to its home in Perth after specialist conservation work.
The logboat was restored over the course of a year at the National Museums Scotland collection centre in Edinburgh.
“Experts said the boat could have been used for a range of purposes, from a cargo craft, fishing vessel, a platform from which to make offerings in the middle of the river, or as a ferry for up to 14 people.
Specialist electric blankets were used as part of the treatment to warm up the wood before gently bending the fragile structure back to its original shape.
When the museum opens next year, visitors will be able to view the Bronze Age treasures of Perth as well as the Stone of Destiny, which returns to Perthshire for the first time in more than 700 years,” the BBC reports.
Carpow is one of the best preserved prehistoric log boats from Britain, the second oldest boat known from Scotland.
Nail linked to Jesus’ crucifixion found in monastery’s secret chamber
A NAIL believed to have been used in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ has been uncovered in the underground chamber of a monastery. Archaeologists working in the Czech Republic’s Milevsko monastery claim to have discovered the incredible discovery.
The six-centimetre fragment of the nail with which Jesus Christ was crucified was allegedly found in a cavity in the vault of a monastery in Czech Republic
The six-inch-long nail was found in a box in the monastery’s cellar, inscribed with the letters IR, which stands for “Jesus is King.”
Experts claim the hidden room was used to hide rare artifacts from raids by Hussite troops in the early 15th century.
Radio Prague reports that researchers cannot confirm whether the nail came from the ‘True Cross’, but say the discovery is “even greater than the reliquary of St Maurus”.
The lid of the box was originally made of a solid gold plate with a wrought inscription IR, meaning ‘Jesus is King’
The Maurus Reliquary is a large gold box containing fragments of the bodies of Saint Maurus, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Timothy.
Archaeologists have previously uncovered dozens of nails claimed to be linked to the crucifixion, leading experts to remain skeptical about the new find.
Jiří Šindelář, who took part in the discovery, told ČTK news agency: “Because the Hussites destroyed the archive, there was no information that such a thing was here.”
Experts will verify the findings next year, he added.
It comes after a study revealed that nails controversially linked to the crucifixion have fragments of ancient bone and wood embedded in them.
There is a long passage underneath the monastery that led archaeologists to the hidden treasury room
The nails were allegedly found in Jerusalem, in a first-century burial cave believed to be the resting place of Caiaphas – the Jewish priest who sent Jesus to his death in the Bible.
At some point after the cave was excavated in 1990, however, the nails went missing.
Years later, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici claimed to have found the nails, even saying that they were used to crucify Jesus himself in the 2011 documentary, Nails Of The Cross.
At the time, scholars slammed the suggestion, denying that the nails Jacobovici had found were the same ones from Caiaphas’ tomb.
Archaeologists have previously uncovered dozens of nails claimed to be linked to the crucifixion
But the study concluded that the nails are indeed the same ones—and that they were probably used to crucify someone too.
A 2000-Year-Old Sarcophagus Found in Egypt and Its Contents Are Still a Mystery
Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered what is believed to be the world’s largest granite sarcophagus in Alexandria, measuring nearly nine feet long.
The enormous stone casket was buried alongside a massive alabaster head—most likely belonging to the tomb’s owner—more than 16 feet beneath the surface.
The massive stone casket was buried more than 16 feet beneath the surface alongside a huge alabaster head, likely belonging to the man who owned the tomb
The ancient coffin has reportedly remained untouched since its burial thousands of years ago during the Ptolemaic period, according to experts.
Researchers working under the Supreme Council of Antiquities discovered the ancient tomb during an excavation in the Sidi Gaber district of Alexandria.
The team was inspecting a resident’s land ahead of digs planned for the foundation of his building at Al-Karmili Street when they stumbled upon the remarkable Ptolemaic burial, 5 meters deep.
The Ptolemaic period lasted roughly 300 years, from 332 to 30 BCE, making this particular site more than 2,000 years old.
According to the archaeologists who led the dig, the black granite sarcophagus stands at 185 centimeters tall (6 feet), 265cm long (8.6 ft), and 165 cm wide (5.4 ft).
A layer of mortar identified between the lid and body of the stone coffin indicates it has not been opened since it was sealed off, says Dr. Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector.
However, just who is buried inside—and the identity of the man in the alabaster carving—remains a mystery. Back in May, the Antiquities Ministry announced the discovery of yet another Ptolemaic find.
The massive stone casket was buried more than 16 feet beneath the surface alongside a huge alabaster head – likely belonging to the man who owned the tomb. Experts say the ancient coffin has remained untouched since its burial thousands of years ago
Alongside the 52-foot-long red brick structure, archaeologists also found pottery vessels, terracotta statues, bronze tools, a chunk of engraved stone, and a statue of a ram.
The most remarkable artifact, however, is among the smallest.
A gold coin depicting the face of King Ptolemy III, a 3rd-century BCE ruler said to be an ancestor of Cleopatra, was also discovered at the site.
According to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, the coin was made during the reign of King Ptolemy IV, in memory of his father.
It measures 2.6 centimeters across and weighs roughly 28 grams. On the side opposite the portrait, letters translating to ‘Land of Prosperity’ were engraved, along with the name of the king.
The huge red brick building was likely part of a Greco-Roman era bath, says Dr. Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities.
It is roughly 16 meters long and 3.5 meters wide.
As work continues at the archaeological site, the researchers hope to uncover more details about the building and its function many centuries ago.
Excavations over the last few years have unearthed countless remarkable artifacts from ancient Egypt, which the country hopes will spur tourism to the area.
Antarctica pyramids claim the ‘Oldest pyramid on Earth’ is hidden on icy continent
On the History Channel, conspiracy theorists argued that the world’s oldest pyramids are hidden beneath the deep, cold snow of Antarctica. The History Channel’s TV series Ancient Aliens, which explores various extraterrestrial theories, introduced this incredibly bizarre theory.
Ancient Aliens season 11 episode 1 looked into the possibility that such pyramids were left behind by ancient alien visitors or human civilizations.
Conspiracy theory author David Childress told Ancient Aliens there is a distinct possibility the Shackleton Pyramid is the oldest of its kind on Earth.
Antarctica pyramids
He said, “If this gigantic pyramid in Antarctica is an artificial structure, it would probably be the oldest pyramid on the planet, and in fact, it might be the master pyramid that all the other pyramids on planet Earth were designed to look like.”
Another conspiracy theorist agreed, saying: “All the way around the world, we find evidence of pyramid structures.
“We should start looking at the possibility that there was habitation in Antarctica.
“Was it a lost civilization? Could it be ancient astronauts?
“And just maybe, the earliest monuments of our own civilization came from Antarctica.”
However, the theory was challenged by Dr. Michael Salla, author of Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence.
The alien expert argued the Antarctic pyramid is just one node in a global network of power-generating pyramids strategically placed around Earth.
A popular pyramid conspiracy claims the triangular structures act as power generators of sorts, built for the purpose of transiting vast amounts of energy wirelessly.
Dr. Salla said: “There has been extensive research done on pyramids throughout the world, in terms of their structure and what they really are.
“One of the theories is that pyramids are power generators, and so if you have these pyramids strategically placed around the world generating a charge, it’s possible to create a general standing wave around the world that is a wireless transmission of energy.”
However, not everyone who saw the Ancient Aliens episode was convinced by the wild theories presented.
YouTube user Derrick commented: “Snow-covered pyramid shape in Antarctica, I believe geologists would call that a mountain.” Lazaros Tsakpounidis said, “I feel like I’m losing my brain cells after watching this.”
And Mohammad Ziaul Mustafa Khan said: “No evidence; only a bunch of authors referred to them as extraterrestrial theorists claimed everything on Earth is conspired by some aliens, now the latest victim is Antarctica.
“Maybe geologists must take lessons from so-called experts.” And according to geologists, there is nothing unusual about the angular shape of the mountain.
Dr Mitch Darcy, a geologist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, argued mountains like this are known as nunataks. Nunataks are exposed and rocky mountain peaks and rides that are naturally occurring and pyramid-like in shape.
Speaking about a similar “Antarctica pyramid” near the Ellsworth Mountains, the geologist told IFLScience: “The peaks are clearly composed of rock, and it’s a coincidence that this particular peak has that shape.
“It’s not a complicated shape, so it’s not a special coincidence either. “By definition, it is a nunatak, which is simply a peak of rock sticking out above a glacier or an ice sheet. “This one has the shape of a pyramid, but that doesn’t make it a human construction.”
A wave of migrating farmers from the ancient Middle East may be the reason why modern Europeans don’t carry as much Neanderthal DNA as today’s East Asians do, a new study finds.
Europeans have less Neanderthal (pictured right) ancestry than East Asians do today because farming Homo sapiens migrated from the Middle East into Europe about 10,000 years ago.
All humans with ancestry from outside of Africa have a little bit of Neanderthal in them — about 2% of the genome, on average. But people with East Asian ancestry have between 8% and 24% more Neanderthal genes than people of European ancestry. That’s a bit of a paradox, because fossil evidence suggests Neanderthals lived in Europe. Why, then, should East Asians carry more of those genes today?
Now, a new study posits a solution to this conundrum: While a wave of human migration out of Africa before at least 40,000 years ago brought Homo sapiens — who were hunter-gatherers — into contact with their Homo neanderthalensis cousins and led to interbreeding, a later wave of H. sapiens migrating about 10,000 years ago diluted Neanderthal genes in Europe only. This was the movement of farmers with minimal Neanderthal ancestry from what is today the Middle East and southwestern Asia into Europe.
These early farmers mixed with local hunter-gatherers, bringing a more H. sapiens-flavored genome to the region. The Homo sapiens who settled East Asia by around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago did not undergo this dilution from newcomers.
“What we propose is a simple explanation,” study lead author Claudio Quilodrán, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolution at the University of Oxford, told Live Science. “It’s just migration.”
Ever since the Neanderthal genome was first sequenced 13 years ago, there have been questions about the mixture of modern human and Neanderthal genes, said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study.
Research suggests that having Neanderthal genes didn’t lead to any major survival advantages or disadvantages for humans, so natural selection is probably not the reason why some populations carry more of these genes than others, Hawks told Live Science.
People have suggested that maybe East Asians met and mixed with additional Neanderthal populations in parts unknown, such as India or Iran, but this is just speculation.
“This scenario says that’s not necessary,” Hawks said. “We can explain this difference based on just one expansion.”
To trace the history of human-Neanderthal relations, Quilodrán and his colleagues looked at 4,464 previously sequenced ancient to modern Homo sapiens genomes, dating from 40,000 years ago to today, examining the proportion of Neanderthal DNA in relation to latitude, longitude, time and region.
They found that early on, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA in anatomically modern humans was higher in Europe than in Asia, matching with what would be expected if early Homo sapiens were radiating out of Africa and meeting their cousins in the Near East and Europe. The reduction in Neanderthal genes in European humans came later.
Particularly stark was the difference between European hunter-gatherers and the Neolithic farmers who came to settle Europe about 10,000 years ago.
The hunter-gatherers had a higher proportion of Neanderthal genes than the Neolithic farmers, suggesting that this wave of newcomers diluted Neanderthal ancestry in Europe. East Asia didn’t see a similar influx — their farmers were homegrown, Hawks said — so East Asian genetics weren’t diluted in the same way. The researchers published their findings Wednesday (Oct. 18) in the journal Science Advances.
“What’s so fascinating about this article is that it takes into account a tremendous amount of ancient DNA evidence that’s now out there,” said Richard Potts, a paleoanthropologist and director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the research.
Encounters between Neanderthals and modern humans occurred even earlier than 40,000 years ago, Potts told Live Science. Last week (Oct. 13), a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania reported in the journal Current Biology that well before 75,000 years ago, a group of modern humans met Neanderthals in Europe, interbred with them, and then died out, leaving their mark in 6% of the Neanderthal genome.
“It’s a very fluid system,” Potts said. “This particular paper didn’t need to take anything like that into account, but it will be really interesting once that added complexity is considered.”
Archaeologists reveal the face of Peru’s ‘Ice Maiden’ mummy
In a remarkable unveiling, the potential true appearance of “Juanita,” Peru’s iconic mummy, a teenage Inca girl sacrificed over half a millennium ago on the lofty Andean peaks, has been revealed.
The bust was unveiled at a ceremony at the Andean Sanctuaries Museum of the Catholic University of Santa Maria in Arequipa
A lifelike sculpture revealing the potential living face of Peru’s most famous mummy, a teenage Inca girl sacrificed in a ritual over 500 years ago on the Andean peaks, has been unveiled.
The reconstructed mummy, known as “Juanita” or “The Ice Maiden”, is the result of collaborative efforts between a team of Polish and Peruvian scientists, in conjunction with Oscar Nilsson, a Swedish sculptor renowned for his expertise in facial reconstructions.
Johan Reinhard, the US anthropologist who found the mummy said he could not have imagined having a precise reconstruction of the mummy.
It took over 400 hours for Nilsson to reconstruct “Juanita,” from the research given by the Polish team.
Who was “The Ice Maiden”?
The mummy known as “Juanita” and the “Inca Ice Maiden”
Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner, Miguel Zárate, discovered the mummy in 1995 at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) on the snow-capped Ampato volcano.
Juanita, the mummy, was almost entirely preserved in a frozen state, retaining her internal organs, hair, blood, skin, and even the contents of her stomach.
In addition to the mummy, they stumbled upon a multitude of items that had been left as offerings to the Inca gods.
These included llama bones, small figurines, and fragments of pottery, scattered across the mountain slope from which the body had tumbled down.
Anthropological research places the sacrificial date of Juanita between A.D. 1440 and 1450 when she was aged between 13 and 15.
The likely cause of her death was identified as a severe blow to the right occipital lobe, as determined by researchers at Johns Hopkins University who conducted a CT scan.
She is considered one of the best-preserved mummies in the Andes and her remains can currently be viewed at the Museum of Andean Sanctuaries in Arequipa, Peru
Archaeologists working in Racibórz have discovered stone products from at least 130,000 years ago. These are the oldest traces of human presence in the foreground of the Moravian Gate and proof that Neanderthals visited this region several times, leaving stone products at the bottom of the river valley.
Archaeological work in the western part of Racibórz, called Studzienna, has been carried out for two years by an international team of archaeologists, geologists, and physicists from the University of Wrocław, the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Silesia in Katowice, and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, in cooperation with the Museum in Racibórz.
‘Our goal was to expose a part of the slope of the old sand pit to collect information about the geological structure and take the necessary samples to determine the age of the sediments using radiometric methods. Quite unexpectedly, we came across stone artefacts, including tools,’ says Dr. Andrzej Wiśniewski from the University of Wrocław and head of the Department of Stone Age Archaeology.
The finds point to the important role of the Racibórz Valley and the Moravian Gate area in the maintenance and development of the human population at that time.
The location of the archaeological site.
The stone products discovered at a depth of 10 m below the ground surface were found in sediments deposited in the cold period approximately 130,000 years ago.
It was a time of reconstruction of the natural environment after a long-term, probably bicyclic cooling, during which the Scandinavian ice sheet advanced to the area of the Ostrava Valley. A huge barrier lake was formed in front of the ice sheet. This barrier disappeared only about 140-130,000 years ago, opening the possibility of free movement of people and animals from the south to the northern lowland areas.
Based on the number of finds discovered in systematically explored archaeological excavations, scientists assume that the area of the former sand pit may still hide several dozen thousand products located in at least three layers.
Exploration of river sediments.
‘This is a basis for stating that after a long break caused by extremely unfavourable climatic conditions that prevailed in the period of approximately 160-140 thousand years ago, this area became attractive for people coming from the south,’ the archaeologist says.
The research, financially supported by the National Science Centre as part of the Opus competition, provided examples of semi-raw materials and stone tools, which proves that people in this place engaged in various activities, from preparing weapons to hunting and butchering.
‘It should be noted that, unlike the areas south of Racibórz and the Moravian Gate, where there are no such good siliceous raw materials, in the Odra Valley area there are and were deposits of erratic rocks with the desired properties, located in the area of valley depressions.
However, we believe that the migrations whose traces we discover in Racibórz were also organized for other reasons, namely the need to obtain appropriate food during the annual cycle of migrations of hunters and gatherers,’ says Dr. Wiśniewski.
The unexpected discoveries of stone products also opened a discussion about the patterns used by stone tool makers at that time.
According to the archaeologist, the recent discoveries show that tools with double-sided surfaces, asymmetric in outline, somewhat reminiscent of today’s wide-bladed knives, played a very important role.
The edges of these tools are shaped with a single strike running parallel to the edge. Similar tools are known from only a few archaeological sites from that period, located north of the Carpathians and the Alps. It cannot be ruled out that they were associated with specific activities, e.g. butchering hunted animals.
The dating of a human presence in the area of the find was made in the laboratory of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, more precisely in the Gliwice Absolute Dating Methods Centre, thanks to the use of an innovative technique based on optoluminescence.
Dr. Wiśniewski says that the results are largely due to new methods used during excavations, as well processing the results in the privacy of offices and laboratories. During the search, the sediments are carefully sifted to extract all stone artefacts and archaeological excavations and geological layers are documented with a 3D laser scanner and a series of photos to obtain photogrammetric models. ‘Digital copies’ of historical objects are also made with 3D scanning.
According to archaeologists, the work in Racibórz confirms the need to return to already known places, in this case the river site.
‘Interestingly, this specific path of archaeological searches in river valleys for the oldest manifestations of human presence in the Pleistocene was set at the beginning of research on the Palaeolithic, which took place in France nearly 200 years ago. So it was not the caves, but the open valley sites that opened the discussion on the prehistoric origins of man,’ says Dr. Wiśniewski. (PAP)
