Huge Hoard of 1000-year-old Yotvingian Weapons Unearthed in Poland
Among hundreds of artifacts from a long-disappeared person famous for its warrior culture, archeological specialists discovered rare swords, spears, and knives in the Suwałki region of eastern Poland.
Such weapons belonged to 500 artifacts that were excavated on the site of a Yotvingians cemetery dating back around 1,000 years
A Baltic people the Yotvingians had cultural ties to the Lithuanians and Prussians.
Occupying an area of land that now straddles parts of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus they spoke a language related to Old Prussian but were, over time, absorbed into the larger Slavic and Germanic groups that surrounded them.
They were famed for their warrior culture and were regarded as good fighters and hunters.
A map showing the ancient land of the Yotvingians.
The new find, described by archaeologists as the “biggest Yotvingian cemetery from the early Middle Ages,” has helped historians gain fresh information on an ancient people long lost to time.
Spearheads, helmets and other items found at the Germanic burial site in Kostrzyn, Poland, earlier this year.
“The area is very rich in Yotvingian culture and rituals,” Jerzy Siemaszko, an archaeologist from the Suwałki District Museum, told PAP. “Getting to the items has been quite easy because they are in a layer about 20-30 centimeters beneath the surface of the ground.
“The area was used by the Yotvingians in the early Middle Ages, between the 11th and 13th centuries,” he added. “It was the site of the very unusual crematory cemetery where the remains of funeral pyres were dumped along with gifts for the dead.”
Although the find has unearthed 500 items some 1,000 may have been stolen by grave robbers.
The excitement generated by the find has, however, been tempered by the fact that treasure hunters appeared to have got there first, stealing an estimated 1,000 items despite the fact that such actions are illegal and bring with them a stint in prison of up to 10 years.
The area of the find is now secured and it’s whereabouts kept secret to prevent further robbery.
Skeleton of Ancient Sports Fan Found Buried with Head-Shaped Jar
A 3rd-century A.D. man’s grave in Bulgaria contained a strigil and curiously crafted balsamarium- a vessel from skin- cleansing oils- in the shape of a man’s head fitted with a feline-skin cap, which may be a reference to the Nemean lion slain by Hercules.
In a Roman-era grave in Bulgaria, a unique brass vessel in the form of a man’s head was discovered. The tomb was found in the Kral Mezar tumulus in southeastern Bulgaria, near the village of Boyanovo.
Over the centuries the tumulus had been repeatedly plundered and agricultural activities changed their shape and size, so a salvage archaeology mission was undertaken in 2015 to excavate it thoroughly.
Inside the tumulus, archaeologists discovered three burials — a sarcophagus, a brick grave, and a tomb. The limestone sarcophagus with a pitched roof lid (found broken on the side) dates to around 150-200 A.D. Sarcophagi are rare finds in Roman Thrace and are believed to have contained the remains of non-Thracians.
The tomb was built of stone and brick with plastered and painted interior walls. It was heavily looted, but the extant funerary goods include bone spindles, needles, glass beads, glass, and ceramic fragments and clay lamp fragments.
A silver denarius from the reign of Caracalla minted in 202 A.D. was found on the tomb floor. Because of the textile-making grave goods, archaeologists believe this was a woman’s tomb.
But it was the third burial, the brick grave, that contained a truly striking artifact. The rectangular pit was lined with bricks coated with a thick layer of white plaster.
Marks on top of the brick walls indicate there had once been wooden beams across the top forming a flat roof. This type of grave was popular in Roman Thrace, particularly in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
The body had been placed in a wooden coffin of which only a few iron nails survive. The skeletal remains are still articulated and just shy of six feet long (1.82 meters). The osteological analysis found the deceased was an adult male about 35-40 years old at the time of death.
Inside the grave was a bronze coin of Caracalla minted in Hadrianopolis 198-217 A.D., fragments from a glass flask, the remains of two pairs of hobnailed shoes, a balsamarium, and a strigil.
“In our opinion, the grave belongs to a Thracian aristocrat, who has practiced sport in his everyday life, rather than to a professional athlete,” Daniela Agre, an archaeologist at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who led archaeological work at the site, told Live Science.
“We think that the tumulus was used as a family necropolis and the deceased was a part of this family,” Agre said.
The strigil is brass, of a type found in other Bulgarian graves from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The balsamarium is also brass, but it is far from a type seen in other Bulgarian graves of the period. In fact, it is unique in the archaeological record of Roman Thrace.
This type of container is believed to have been used to hold scented oils or perfumes for use in the baths, which is why they’re often found coupled with strigils that would have scraped the oil off the skin to clean and exfoliate.
It is 4.7 inches high, 4.2 inches wide and is shaped like the head of a man wearing an animal-skin skullcap. The visible features of the animal’s head — nostrils, eyes, canine teeth in the lower jaw — suggest it was a feline.
A neck draped with robes forms the foot of the vessel with a flat bottom made from a single metal sheet. There’s a hole in the top of the head for a hinged lid that is now lost. On either side of the opening are loops where a swing handle was attached. There’s still a handle attached through one of the loops; the other side of the handle is broken.
The man’s face is broad with shaved cheeks and a neatly shaped goatee. His nose viewed from profile has a proud aquiline bump. Seen from the front, it is bent to the left and widened at the base, suggesting that it has seen the business end of more than a few clenched fists. Five vessels with comparable features are found in museums in Los Angeles, France, and Germany.
Scholars believe these features — the bent aquiline nose, the goatee, the skullcaps, the lock of hair on the back of the head — represent the heads of boxers or wrestlers.
The Boyanovo piece is distinct from these comparables because it does not have the lock of hair and because of its feline skin cap. The former is likely necessitated by the latter; the sculptor couldn’t include both the lock of hair and the incredibly detailed feline skin covering the back of the hair.
There Are 8,000 Known Terracotta Warriors. But Archaeologists in China Just Found More Than 200 Others
At the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, nearly 200 more warriors from the ancient China Terracotta Army were unearthed.
The remains of the two chariots, 12 clay horses, bronze swords, arcades and decorative helmets on the site were also found by archeologists.
During the recent excavations of the No. 1 pit in an area covering 400 square meters (4 300 square feet), the finding, which was confirmed by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Most of the newly-found warriors were divided into two groups. One group is carrying poles, while the other carries bows, by Shen Maosheng who led the digging.
The Terracotta Army was built around 2,200 years ago to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. The army, which consists of an estimated 8,000 soldiers, over 500 horses and 130 chariots, was assembled in three main pits near to the emperor’s mausoleum.
The 2,200-year-old Terracotta Army at the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in 2005.
It was first discovered in 1974 by farmers digging in northwest China. Excavations soon revealed a huge complex with thousands of soldiers, each with individual features.
The tomb is believed to span around 38 square miles and, along with the Terracotta Army, contains a mass grave of laborers and craftsmen. The complex is believed to have taken around 30 years to build.
Archaeologists launched a new excavation at No.1 Pit in 2009. The 200 new warriors were found as part of this effort. This project aimed to better understand the military service system and equipment used by the Qin Dynasty army.
According to Xinhua, No.1 Pit contains 6,000 clay warriors and horses. It is estimated to be 750-feet long and 200-feet wide.
Scientists are still working to understand how this vast army was created. Last year, researchers led by Marcos Martinon-Torres, from the Department of Archaeology at the U.K.’s University of Cambridge, announced that the weapons at the site had been remarkably well-preserved because of the natural conditions in the pits where they were buried. Previously, it had been suggested that they had been coated in some sort of advanced, anti-rust technology.
“In some ways the Terracotta Army feels like an extraordinary playground for archaeologists: It is large, complex, well-preserved, meticulously excavated and great fun,” he told Newsweek at the time. “It raises countless questions that demand tailor-made collaborative approaches and keep all of us amused.”
While the Qin Dynasty lasted just 15 years, it was the first time China was ruled as a unified country. As well as the Terracotta Army, Emperor Qin Shi Huang was also responsible for the construction of the Great Wall of China.
Demon with Forked Tongue Found on Clay Tablet in Library of Assyrian Exorcists
On a 2,700-year-old clay, a demonic figure with curved horns, a forked tongue, tail, and reptilian eyes long lurked was Unobserved is placed at housed of Berlin’s Vorderasiatisches Museum, a new study published in Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes suggests.
A scholar spotted the long-overlooked image (its horns and face are at left, its legs on the right) while conducting research at a Berlin museum.
The Assyriologist Troels Pank Arbøll of the University of Copenhagen discovered the rare illustration while studying the cuneiform text five years ago.
Researchers have known of the artifact’s existence for decades, but as Arbøll tells BBC Tom Metcalfe, he was the first to notice the creature’s damaged outline.
The writing on the tablet suggests its creator viewed the demon as the cause of convulsions and other involuntary movements then called bennu but now understood as epilepsy.
As per the study, the anthropomorphic figure measures around 2.5 inches tall and one inch wide. Its neck is long, and its body appears to be covered in scales or hair.
Although the majority of the demon’s torso has been effaced over the centuries, its claw-like hands and feet remain partially visible.
Magic and medicine were intertwined in ancient Assyria. According to a University of Copenhagen statement, the Assyrians believed diseases were caused by gods, demons or witchcraft. To treat these afflictions, healers turned to drugs, rituals or incantations.
Interestingly, explains Arbøll to Metcalfe, the newly described drawing differs from spiritual images typically found on cuneiform tablets. Unlike “comparable drawings, which generally depict a figurine made during a ritual to remove the illness,” the tablet depicts an “actual demon.”
As the researcher notes in the statement, the work presents the mystical being “as the healer who wrote the text must have imagined it.”
The drawing presents the mystical being “as the healer who wrote the text must have imagined it.” (Troels Pank Arbøll)
The tablet’s text indicates that ancient “doctors” would have blamed bennu’s occurrence on a demon acting on behalf of the Mesopotamian moon god Sîn.
The standard prescription, according to Arbøll, was to wear a leather amulet and breathe in smoke from certain ingredients charred on hot coals.
Arbøll previously completed a separate analysis of cuneiform tablets cataloging the medical training of a man named Kisir-Ashur.
This microhistory offered new insights on ancient Assyrian medical practices, including how doctors were “trained in the art of diagnosing and treating illnesses, and their causes,” the Assyriologist told ScienceNordic’s Bo Christensen in 2018.
Like the tablets studied for this earlier survey, the demon manuscript was unearthed in Kisir-Ashur’s private library. He and his family lived in the city of Assur, located in what is now northern Iraq, around 650 B.C., through BBC. Metcalfe points out that the bennu text in question was likely copied from a far older document.
Kisir-Ashur and others like him are often described as exorcists, but Arbøll told Christensen that this title is a mistranslation, as these individuals also handled non-spiritual issues.
“He does not work simply with religious rituals, but also with plant-based medical treatments,” the researcher said. “It is possible that he studied the effects of venom from scorpions and snakes on the human body and that he perhaps tried to draw conclusions based on his observations.”
10th Century with Jesus Christ image, peacock ring seal found in Tudia fortress in Bulgaria’s sliven
Archaeological excavations of the Late Roman, Early Byzantine and medieval Bulgarian fortress of Tuida in the city of Sliven. Found one of the most notable objects found during 2019 is the cross with an Image of Jesus Christ of the tenth century, during Bulgaria’s First Empire (632/680 – 1018), and a medieval ring seal with a peacock image.
This 10th century bronze cross depicting Jesus Christ has been discovered in the latest digs in the Tuida Fortress in Bulgaria’s Sliven
Tuida, now increasingly gaining popularity as a cultural tourism venue, was originally an Ancient Thracian settlement that grew into a Late Roman, Early Byzantine, and medieval Bulgarian fortress.
The Roman fortress itself was built after the capital of the Roman Empire was moved from Rome to Constantinople in 325 AD.
Among other things, the Tuida Fortress in the city of Sliven in Southeast Bulgaria is remarkable for having a well-preserved secret passage leading outside the stronghold to a nearby river, which was erected in the 6th century AD.
The 2019 archaeological excavations of the Tuida Fortress were conducted for a period of 20 days in the middle of the fall, and led to the discovery of a total of 103 archaeological artifacts, Nikolay Sirakov, Director of the Dr. Simeon Tabakov Regional Museum of History in Sliven has announced at a news conference.
A total of 103 archaeological artifacts have been found in the 2019 excavations in Tuida in Bulgaria’s Sliven.
The archaeological team of the Sliven Regional Museum of History has excavated a spot in the northern part of the Tuida Fortress, unearthing and researching part of a well-preserved home from the 9th – 10th century, a medieval water pipeline, and a total of nine medieval pits, which were part of the said home, Sirakov reveals, as cited by BTA.
The small 10th century cross with a depiction of Jesus Christ discovered in the latest digs in the Tuida Fortress in Sliven is made of bronze.
The partly restored ruins of the Tuida Fortress overlooking the city of Sliven in Southeast Bulgaria
The 10th-century bronze cross is one of the most intriguing archaeological artifacts found in relatively small-scale digs inside the Tuida Fortress in fall 2019.
In addition to the Christian artifacts, the Bulgarian archaeologists have also found a large number of medieval coins and bone artifacts in the latest digs in the Tuida Fortress in Sliven.
The latter finds are seen as a demonstration that bone processing and crafting were among the medieval crafts that were well-developed in the Tuida Fortress.
In addition to the excavations in Tuida, whose partly restored ruins overlook the modern-day city of Sliven, in 2019, the archaeologists from the city’s Regional Museum of History participated in two other exploration projects.
One has been performing rescue archaeological excavations in the town of Zornitsa, Haskovo District, along the route of the natural gas pipeline connecting Bulgaria and Greece (the “Stara Zagora – Komotini” natural gas pipeline, also known as Interconnector Bulgaria – Greece (IBG).
There the archaeologists found a number of artifacts from various time periods dating back as early as the prehistory, including loom weights, fishing tackles, a mold for ceramic lamps, iron arrow tips, and various types of bronze and silver coins.
The most notable artifact found in the digs near Zornitsa led by archaeologist Veselin Ignatov, however, is said to be the bronze umbo (shield boss) of a parade shield.
More Than 3,500 Copper Coins Repatriated to Mexico
3,500 tongue-like copper coins were handed over to Mexican authorities in the United States. Mexico daily news Reported.
One of the copper coins being returned to Mexico.
The Mexican Consulate Jessica Cascante in Miami said the coins are thought to have been used in what are now the southwestern Mexican states of Guerrero and Michoacán between A.D. 1200 and 1500.
The United States returned a collection of over 3,500 pre-Hispanic copper coins to Mexican authorities in a ceremony in Miami on Monday.
A U.S. collector acquired them in Texas at a numismatic fair in the 1960s, she said, but at that time neither Mexico nor the United States was part of a UNESCO convention that guarantees the return of such heritage artifacts to their countries of origin.
Cascante said the fragile, tongue-shaped coins, which are currently covered in verdigris, will be sent to Mexico in January.
Agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who headed the operation to recover the coins attended the presentation ceremony along with the Consul General of Mexico in Miami, Jonathan Chait.
The collection consists of over 3,500 coins.
Mexican authorities notified the FBI of the existence of the coins in 2013 when they were taken to Spain for an auction.
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) then began authenticating the coins in order to request their return.
As both countries were by then signatories to the UNESCO convention (Mexico in 1972 and the United States in 1983), the return process was completed six years later.
Cascante did not divulge the name of the collector who obtained the coins in the 1960s, but said that he did so before it constituted a crime and turned them involuntarily.
“Now we’re just waiting for the physical material to arrive [in Mexico],” she said, adding that they are currently being packaged with the support of specialists from history museums in Florida.
Homo erectus’ last known appearance dates to roughly 117,000 years ago
A new study finds that the last known appearance of Homo erectus, at Java’s Ngandong site, dates to between 117,000 and 108,000 years ago. A H. Erectus skullcap previously found at the site is shown.
Two million years ago the Homo erectus had evolved and became the first human species to be entirely upright. New evidence suggests it remained there on the Indonesian island of Java just over 100,000 years ago-long after it had disappeared elsewhere.
It means when our own species started living on Earth, it was still around. In the 1930s, 12 Homo erectus skull caps and two lower leg bones were found in a bone bed 20m above the Solo River at Ngandong in central Java.
In subsequent decades, researchers have attempted to date the fossils. But this proved difficult because the surrounding geology is complex and details of the original excavations became confused. In the 1990s, one team came up with unexpectedly young ages of between 53,000 and 27,000 years ago. This raised the distinct possibility that modern humans overlapped with Homo erectus on the Indonesian island.
Prof Russell Ciochon with replicas of the Homo erectus skull caps found at Ngandong
Now, researchers led by Prof Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa in Iowa City opened up new excavations on the terraces beside the Solo River, reanalyzing the site and its surroundings.
They have provided what they describe as a definitive age for the bone bed of between 117,000 and 108,000 years old. This represents the most recent known record of Homo erectus anywhere in the world.
“I don’t know what you could date at the site to give you more precise dates than what we’ve been able to produce,” Prof Ciochon told LIVE SCIENCE.
Prof Chris Stringer, research leader on human evolution at London’s Natural History Museum, who was not involved with the work, commented: “This is a very comprehensive study of the depositional context of the famous Ngandong Homo erectus partial skulls and shin bones, and the authors build a strong case that these individuals died and were washed into the deposits of the Solo River about 112,000 years ago.
“This age is very young for such primitive-looking Homo erectus fossils, and establishes that the species persisted on Java for well over one million years.”
Researchers think the collection of remains represent a mass death event, possibly the result of a lahar upriver. A lahar – which comes from a Javanese word – is the slurry that can flow down the slope of a volcano when heavy rainfall occurs during or after a volcanic eruption. These violent events will sweep away anything in their path.
Previously, team-member Frank Huffman, from the University of Texas at Austin, had tracked down the descendants of the Dutch researchers who excavated the Homo erectus remains back in the 1930s.
The excavation sites lie along the Solo River in central Java
The relatives were able to provide him with photographs of the original dig, maps, and notebooks. Huffman was able to resolve much of the uncertainty that had hampered previous attempts to understand the site.
“He was able to tell us exactly where to dig,” Prof Ciochon said of the University of Texas researcher. Ciochon and his colleagues excavated part of an untouched reserve area left alone by the Dutch team in the 1930s. Informed by records of the original excavations, the team was able to identify the gravelly deposit – or bone bed – from which the Homo erectus fossils had come, and date it.
On other islands in South-East Asia, Homo erectus appears to have evolved into smaller forms, such as Homo floresiensis – the “Hobbit” – on Flores, and Homo luzonensis in the Philippines. This probably occurred because there were limited food resources on these islands. But on Java, there appears to have been enough food for Erectus to maintain its original body size.
The specimens at Ngandong appear to be between 5ft and 6ft in height – comparable to examples from Africa and elsewhere in Eurasia. The findings further underline the shift in thinking this field of study has undergone over the decades. We used to think of human evolution as a progression, with a straight line leading from apes to us. This is embodied in the so-called March of Progress illustration where a stooping chimp-like creature gradually morphs into Homo sapiens, apparently the apex of evolution.
Excavations at Ngandong in 2010
These days, we know things were far messier. The latest study highlights a mind-boggling truth: that many of the species we thought of as transitional stages in this onward march overlapped with each other, in some cases for hundreds of thousands of years.
But why did Homo erectus survive so late on Java? In Africa, the species was probably gone by 500,000 years ago; in China, it vanished some 400,000 years ago. Russell Ciochon thinks that it was probably outcompeted by other human species elsewhere, but Java’s location allowed it to thrive in isolation. However, the results show the fossils came from a period when environmental conditions on Java were changing. What was once open woodlands were transforming into the rainforest. Prof Ciochon thinks this could mark the exact point of extinction of Homo erectus on the island.
No Homo erectus is found after this time, he explained, and there’s a gap with no human activity at all until Homo sapiens turns up on Java around 39,000 years ago. Prof Ciochon believes H. Erectus was too dependent on the open savannah and too inflexible to adapt to life in a rainforest. “Homo sapiens is the only hominin species that live in a tropical forest,” he explained. “I think it’s mainly because of the cultural attributes of Homo sapiens – the ability to make all these specialized tools.”
“Once this rainforest flora and fauna spread across Java, that’s the end of erectus.”
But Chris Stringer sounded a note of caution.
“The authors claim that this is, therefore, the last known occurrence of the species and that this indicates there was no overlap of the species with Homo sapiens in Java, as H. sapiens arrived much later,” he said.
“I’m not convinced about that as other supposedly late Homo erectus material from Javanese sites like Ngawi and Sambungmacan remain to be properly dated, and they may be younger still. Alternatively, they may correlate with the ages of the Ngandong fossils, but that should be the next stage of an investigation.”
A Man Renovating His Home Discovered A Tunnel… To A Massive Underground City
In 1963, a man in the Nevşehir Province of Turkey knocked down a wall of his home. Behind it, he discovered a mysterious room and soon discovered an intricate tunnel system with additional cave-like rooms. What he had discovered was the ancient Derinkuyu underground city in Turkey.
The underground city was home to approximately 20,000 residents.
The elaborate subterranean network included discrete entrances, ventilation shafts, wells, and connecting passageways. It was one of the dozens of underground cities carved from the rock in Cappadocia thousands of years ago. It remained hidden for centuries.
Located almost exactly in the center of Turkey in the region best known as “Cappadocia,” this particular complex is located in the modern town of Derinkuyu.
Researchers think that the underground corridors may go much deeper, nevertheless, the exact size of them remains unknown.
That the man found this complex while digging out his house was surprising, as was its size, but Cappadocia was already famous for its underground dwellings. There are over two hundred known underground “cities” of various sizes in the region (most of them would more properly be called “villages” or “hamlets”).
At least forty of them have three or more levels, with Kaymakli and Derinkuyu having eight and eighteen (!), respectively. Most archaeologists believe that the caves were begun by the Phrygian people (one of the many “sea peoples” that invaded the Aegean and Turkish area from the west, and who are mentioned in ancient texts) in about the 7th or 8th centuries B.C.
Some believe the caves are older, and date from the Hittite period some five hundred years before that. Regardless of who dug it, the cave system at Derinkuyu especially was not built by “stupid troglodytes”–these were exceedingly smart troglodytes.
Probably the last residents of the city were the early Christians, but they weren’t the actual builders.
Then the city was forgotten for more than 1,000 years.
As one can imagine, there are many good reasons for building a city underground. First and foremost was likely defense, but of course, shelter from the weather was an important factor too. No wind, no rain or snow, protection from the blazing Mediterranean sun.
Another factor was access to water. Rivers and lakes run dry and enemies might control water sources in an effort to subdue your people, but if you are sitting directly on top of an aquifer, you’ve got all the water you’ll ever need.
The cleverness of the people at Derinkuyu is illustrated by the fact that one of the wells there (over two hundred feet down) was controlled by those on the deepest levels. Access to the wells could be closed tight with wood and stone so those above could not attempt to poison the water below.
There were stone-wheel doors at the entrances to the tunnels to protect residents from invaders.
Even if the enemy had gotten inside, he would have never gotten back to the surface without knowledge of the secret passages and labyrinth plan.
The stone in Cappadocia is soft volcanic rock left eons ago. One might call it sandstone, from its looks, but it is not. Though relatively easy to dig through (compared to granite, for example), it was still no small undertaking for the people of Cappadocia to dig out.
This also means that the stone can be carved easily. Later troglodytic complexes include elaborate early Christian churches, with arches embedded in the ceiling.
Security was built in. Entrances were in high or in very well-hidden places. The tunnels and stairways are just wide enough for one adult to make their way through – enemy warriors could only fight one on one in the corridors.
Oil lamps lit the halls, stairways, and dwellings, and could be extinguished by retreating warriors and families to confuse invaders. Dead-ends known only to those living in the complex would also add to any confusion.
Large circular stones could be rolled into tunnels, blocking further advance. During the original Turkish invasions in the 10th century, and into the Ottoman era, these caves were used as refuge and defense.
Some of the smaller troglodyte dwellings (and that’s what they’re called) are still inhabited. Many of the others were lived in until early in the 20th century.
The large complex at Kaymakli was last used as a refuge by Anatolian Greeks fearing the massacres that were taking place in the war between Turkey and Greece in the early 1920s.
Today, many of these underground cities and towns are open to the public and are Turkish national treasures.
Tourists are allowed to visit only a small part of the city where the maze is fenced so that nobody gets lost.
The large complexes at Kaymakli and Derinkuyu offer guided tours through the approximately ten percent of the cave systems that are open to the public.
