ASIA, SAUDI ARABIA, WORLD

Human footprints dated to roughly 85,000 years ago revealed in Saudi Arabia

Human footprints dated to roughly 85,000 years ago revealed in Saudi Arabia

In the Tabuk province in northwestern Saudi Arabia there are human footprints dating back 85,000 years. The traces of the footprints were discovered on the bank of an ancient lake in the desert of Al-Nafud.

Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

During a tour of the display of the “Roads of Arabian — Saudi Archeological Masterpieces through the Ages,” Prince Sultan bin Salman, Chairman of the Saudi Tourism and National Heritage Commission (SATCH) at the National Museum in Tokyo, Japan, revealed the groundbreaking discovery.

Prince Sultan said that an international team of archaeologists, including Saudi experts, found traces of footprints of several adult prehistoric people scattered on the land and in an old lake.

The people may have been fishing in the lake for food, he said, adding that the findings would be studied in great detail.

Prince Sultan said that the team of researchers led by Michael Petraglia, of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, presented this small piece of bone as the oldest remains of Homo sapiens discovered outside Africa and the Levant. 

“This bone gives essential indications to understand the exodus of our ancestors from Africa,” he said.

Prince Sultan said that the project was part of the “Green Arabia: The Palaeodeserts Project,” a Saudi-British undertaking for survey and excavation to implement environmental and archaeological studies of historical sites in the Kingdom.

The objective is to study the likelihood of expansion or extinction of humans and animals and their adaptation to living conditions. 

The project has led to many other significant discoveries of animals and mammal fossils in Saudi deserts, including a giant 300,000-year-old elephant tusk from the Nafud Desert, suggesting a greener, wetter Arabian Desert in the past.

An elephant’s carpal bone, located five meters from the tusk, was also discovered in the same sand layer at the excavation site.

The project, funded by the European Research Council, the SCTH and the Max Planck Society, examines the environmental change in the Arabian Desert over the past million years.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers is studying the effect of environmental change on early humans and animals that settled or passed through the desert and how their responses determined whether they survived or died out.

Last month, a fossil finger bone unearthed in Saudi Arabia’s Nafud Desert pointed to what scientists are calling a new understanding of how the human species came out of Africa en route to the rest of the world.

A joint scientific team discovered the first sample of ancient human remains in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

The research team included the Saudi Geological Survey, the SCTH, King Saud University, the Max Planck Foundation for Human History, Oxford University, Cambridge University, the Australia National University and the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Researchers say the discovery shows that hunter-gatherers had reached the area 85,000 years ago. Previously discovered human fossils show an earlier human presence in Israel and possibly China.

The bone, from an adult and most likely a middle finger, was found in 2016 about 550 kilometers southeast of the Sinai Peninsula.

Michael Petraglia, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, said that the ancient people probably left Africa through the peninsula.

ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Legendary Saraswati River of Harappan Civilization Found

Legendary Saraswati River of Harappan Civilization Found

A recent study has shown that it is the Ghaggar River that was later identified as the legendary Saraswati with the “clear evidence” that the early Harappans built their settlements.

It has been repeated several times since the 19th Century that a modern Ghaggar-Hakra river system, which runs intermittently between Indian and Pakistan, could be the Saraswati river described in the Rig Veda.

However, with no proof of the river’s uninterrupted flow during the zenith of civilization, it has been argued that the Harappans depended on monsoonal rains.

Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning.

In the study, published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’ on November 20, scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad and the Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Bombay presented what they called was “unequivocal evidence for the Ghaggar’s perennial past by studying temporal changes of sediment provenance along a 300 km stretch of the river basin”. ‘

They argued that “this revived perennial condition of the Ghaggar, which can be correlated with the Saraswati, likely facilitated the development of the early Harappan settlements along its banks.”

Study area and subsurface stratigraphy along the Ghaggar-Hakra.

The study argues that “Harappans built their early settlements along with a stronger phase of the river Ghaggar”, during a period 9,000 to 4,500 years ago, “which would later be known as the Saraswati”, but “by the time the civilization matured, the river had already lost its glacial connection.”

The study notes that while the eventual “decline” of the “civilization” at the Ghaggar-Saraswati valley postdates “the exceptional changes to the flow of the river”, “a stronger perennial phase appears to have helped the early societies sow the seeds of the earliest known civilization of the Indian subcontinent.”

The presence of a large number of Harappan settlements along the banks of the modern-day Ghaggar Hakra stream, which had remained monsoon-fed for most of its history, has baffled archaeologists since the 1950s.

The ancient Harappan settled along the Saraswati River.

The authors noted that the observation that “Harappans in the Ghaggar valley made little effort to harvest rainwater, unlike their counterparts in the semi-arid Saurashtra and Rann of Kachchh regions” in spite of a weakening monsoon raised “serious doubt about the conclusion that the Ghaggar had a seasonal water supply.”

The researchers noted that two of its largest cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, along with smaller settlements were built along “mighty and frequently flooding Indus and Ravi, respectively.”

In spite of evidence of an increase in localized rainfall for a few centuries, during the urbanization of the period, the study notes, “The important question that needs to be asked is: what made the early settlers build their cities along a supposedly dying river instead of the well-watered plains of neighboring perennial Himalayan rivers.”

The researchers studied the temporal changes in the origin of the sediment along the 300 kilometer stretch of the river basin and established that 80,000 to 20,000 years ago, the river was receiving sediments from the Higher Himalayas and 9,000 to 4,500 years ago, from the Lesser Himalayas.

“The latter phase can be attributed to the reactivation of the river by the distributaries of the Sutlej,” it added.

The study scrutinized the dynamics of the Harappan civilization and found that “timing of the rejuvenated perennial phase of the Ghaggar”, which was between 9,000 to 4,500 years ago, “coincides with that of the flourishing of the Pre-Harappan and Early Harappan cultures along its banks.”

“Towards the end of the Mature Harappan phase (4.6-3.9 ka), there is a clear evidence of human migrations to the lower and upper reaches of the river, leaving the middle part sparsely populated…which could be attributed to the disorganization of the river as established in this work,” it said while adding that the lower reaches of the river “possibly remained perennial, through a connection from the Sutlej, supporting mature and post-urban Harappan settlements.”

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

A Ceramic Jar Filled with Thousand of bronze coins Unearthed at the site of a 15th-century Samurai Residents

A Ceramic Jar Filled with Thousand of bronze coins Unearthed at the site of a 15th-century Samurai Residents

Archaeology is like a treasure hunt where the prizes are pieces of information from the past, and Japanese archaeologists recently hit the jackpot. They discovered a jar filled with coins belonging to a medieval samurai.

The ceramic jar was found in the Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo and is one of the largest hauls of medieval coins discovered in the country, it has been unearthed at the site of a fifteenth-century samurai’s residence.

The jar, which dates back to the first half of the 15th century, contains well over 100,000 bronze coins and measures nearly 24 inches in diameter.

According to archaeologist Yoshiyuki Takise of the Saitama Cultural Deposits Research Corporation, the coins, which were cast in China, may have been an offering to the deity of the earth, or may simply have been buried for safekeeping.

A wood tablet was discovered next to the stone lid, with the words “nihyaku rokuju” (260) written in ink. Archaeologists believe this could refer to 260 kan, or units of 1,000, placing the total at 260,000 coins in the jar.

The treasure was buried 6.5 feet (2 meters) below ground and was likely placed there to save the samurai’s riches, as it was a troubled period in Japan’s history.

Over the course of the 15th century, civil war broke out as the Muromachi shogunate was under attack.

This was a period where the Emperor was relatively weak, with military dictators known as shoguns leading the country.

The second half of the 15th century saw different families jockeying for position and power—leading to increased violence.

In a town just north of Tokyo, a ceramic jar filled with thousands of bronze coins has been unearthed at the site of a fifteenth-century samurai’s residence.

Feudal lords, known as daimyō, challenged the shogun’s authority and it was in this era that ninjas were often hired and used as secret assassins.

With that picture clear, it makes sense that a powerful samurai would want to keep his money hidden.

For now, 70 of the coins have been examined. These coins were looped on a string and include 19 different coins from China and different areas of Japan.

It’s thought that all of the coins—which have holes in the center—would have been strung together on a rope before being added to the jar.

Based on the coins looked at so far, researchers believe the jar would have been buried at some point after the second half of the 15th century.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Mysterious flooding leads to the discovery of 5,000-year-old underground city in Turkey’s Cappadocia

Mysterious flooding leads to the discovery of 5,000-year-old underground city in Turkey’s Cappadocia

One of the most spectacular sights in the world is in Central Turkey – dark valleys and rock formations with homes, chapels, churches, mosques and entire underground towns, harmoniously cut into the natural landscape.

These unique underground havens have risen and fallen around cities, empires, and religions, and yet it seems they still hold a few more secrets.

Another massive underground city in Cappadocia has been uncovered by archeologists in Turkey, consisting of at least 7 km of caves, hidden churches and escape galleries, dating back some five thousand years.

Calling it the “biggest archeological finding of 2014”, Hurriyet Daily News announced that the ancient city was found beneath Nevşehir fortress and the surrounding area, during an urban transformation project carried out by Turkey’s Housing Development Administration (TOKİ). 

“Some 1,500 buildings were destructed located in and around the Nevşehir fortress, and the underground city was discovered when the earthmoving to construct new buildings had started,” writes Hurriyet Daily News.

Nevşehir province in Cappadocia, Turkey

Nevşehir province is already famous for its incredible subterranean city at Derinkuyu (pictured in featured image), which was once home to as many as 20,000 residents living together underground.

It is eleven levels deep and has 600 entrances and many miles of tunnels connecting it to other underground cities.  It incorporates areas for sleeping, stables for livestock, wells, water tanks, pits for cooking, ventilation shafts, communal rooms, bathrooms, and tombs.

A reconstruction of what the Derinkuyu underground city is believed to have looked like

It is hard to imagine anything surpassing the Derinkuyu underground city in both size and scope, but archaeologists are saying they have reason to believe the newly discovered subterranean city will be the largest out of all the other underground cities in Nevşehir and may even be the largest underground city in the world.

Details regarding the dating of the site and how this was carried out, have not yet been released by those involved.

However, researchers have reported retrieving more than forty artifacts from the tunnels so far, so archaeologists may have reached the estimated date of 5,000 years based on those.

Numerous other known underground sites in Cappadocia have also been dated to this era.

Despite pouring 90 million Turkish Liras into the urban transformation project so far, the TOKİ has said it will move now their project to the outskirts of the city so that the newly found city, which is now officially registered with the Cultural and National Heritage Preservation Board, can be investigated and preserved.

TOKİ Head Mehmet Ergün Turan told Hurriyet Daily News that they do not view this as a loss considering the importance of the discovery.

“Hasan Ünver, mayor of Nevşehir, said other underground cities in Nevşehir’s various districts do not even amount to the “kitchen” of this new underground city,” reports Hurriyet Daily News.

Through the ages, the Hittites, Persians, Alexander the Great, Rome, The Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Turkey have all governed the spectacular region of Cappadocia in Central Anatolia.

One hundred square miles with more than 200 underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages, secret rooms, and ancient temples and remarkably storied history of each new civilization building on the work of the last, make Cappadocia one of the world’s most striking and largest cave-dwelling regions of the world.

Now a discovery has been made that may overshadow them all.

The incredible cave houses of Cappadocia, Turkey.
WORLD

Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans?

Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans?

There are tens of billion potentially habitable planets in our Milky Way Galaxy. But we don’t know whether we are alone For now, the Planet is the only world known for its existence, so we believe that Homo sapiens is the only species to have developed advanced technology among all the living things on our earth.

But maybe that’s assuming too much.

With an insightful new paper called “The Silurian Hypothesis,” the scientists of NASA’s Goddard Research Institute and of the University of Rochester take a critical look at the scientific evidence that our civilization is the only advanced one ever on earth. In a report on the ancient brain reptiles featured in the British Science Fiction Show, “Doctor Who”

“Are we really aware that we were Earth’s first technology species?” Asks Adam Frank, a physics and astronomy professor and co-author of the article at Rochester. “Only for 300 years have we had an industrial society, but for nearly 400 million years there has been dynamic life on the ground.”

If humans went extinct today, Frank says, any future civilization that might arise on Earth millions of years hence might find it hard to recognize traces of human civilization. By the same token, if some earlier civilization existed on Earth millions of years ago, we might have trouble finding evidence of it.

In search of lizard people

The discovery of physical artifacts would certainly be the most dramatic evidence of a Silurian-style civilization on Earth, but Frank doubts we’ll ever find anything of the sort.

“Our cities cover less than one percent of the surface,” he says. Any comparable cities from an earlier civilization would be easy for modern-day paleontologists to miss. And no one should count on finding a Jurassic iPhone; it wouldn’t last millions of years, Gorilla Glass or no.

Sleestaks

Finding fossilized bones is a slightly better bet, but if another advanced species walked the Earth millions of years ago — if they walked — it would be easy to overlook their fossilized skeletons — if they had skeletons. Modern humans have been around for just 100,000 years, a thin sliver of time within the vast and spotty fossil record.

For these reasons, Frank and Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist at Goddard and the paper’s co-author, focus on the possibility of finding chemical relics of an ancient terrestrial civilization.

Using human technology as their guide, Schmidt and Frank suggest zeroing in on plastics and other long-lived synthetic molecules as well as radioactive fallout (in case factions of ancient lizard people waged atomic warfare). In our case, technological development has been accompanied by widespread extinctions and rapid environmental changes, so those are red flags as well.

After reviewing several suspiciously abrupt geologic events of the past 380 million years, the researchers conclude that none of them clearly fit a technological profile. Frank calls for more research, such as studying how modern industrial chemicals persist in ocean sediments and then seeing if we can find traces of similar chemicals in the geologic record.

He argues that a deeper understanding of the human environmental footprint will also have practical consequences, helping us recognize better ways to achieve a long-term balance with the planet so we don’t end up as tomorrow’s forgotten species.

Then again, he’s also a curious guy who’s interested in exploring more far-out ideas for finding Silurian-style signatures: “You could try looking on the moon,” he says.

Lunar archaeology

The moon is a favored target of Penn State University astronomer Jason Wright, one of a handful of other researchers now applying serious scientific thinking to the possibility of pre-human technological civilizations.

“Habitable planets like Earth are pretty good at destroying unmaintained things on their surfaces,” Wright says. So he’s been looking at the exotic possibility that such a civilization might have been a spacefaring one. If so, artifacts of their technology, or technosignatures, might be found elsewhere in the solar system.

Wright suggests looking for such artifacts not just on the lunar surface, but also on asteroids or buried on Mars — places where such objects could theoretically survive for hundreds of millions or even billions of years.

SpaceX’s recent launch of a Tesla Roadster into space offers an insight into how such a search might go. Several astronomers pointed their telescopes at the car and showed that, even if you had no idea what you were looking at, you’d still quickly pick it out as one weird-looking asteroid.

Finding technosignatures in space is an extreme long shot, but Wright argues that the effort is worthwhile. “There are lots of other reasons to find peculiar structures on Mars and the moon, and to look for weird asteroids,” he says. Such studies might reveal new details about the history and evolution of the solar system, for instance, or about resources that might be useful to future spacefarers.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

From representation to reality: ancient Egyptian wax head cones from Amarna

Archaeologists have finally found ancient Egyptian wax head cones

Many men with cone-shaped headgear were depicted in ancient Egyptian paintings but no actual representations are identified for a long time. Now, an international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of the first actual head cones at the city of Amarna.

Pharaoh Akhenaten rendered Amarna and it was only 15 years occupied (1347 – 1332 BC). But despite this brief existence, the city contains thousands of graves, including those of many non-elites.

The Amarna Project archeologists collaborate with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities to investigate them, shedding light on the ordinary people of ancient Egypt.

Their discovery in 2010 was unexpected: a grave with a head cone. Another was found in 2015. This finally confirmed the objects actually existed, which some researchers had been skeptical of.

Wherever the reasons are unknown, these cones are included in the burials, the Amarna cones have provided the first opportunity to investigate an important ancient Egyptian tradition that, until now, we weren’t even sure existed.

Ancient Egyptian art frequently depicted people wearing a cone-shaped headgear. For around 1,500 years (c. 1549-30 BC), paintings and carvings showed individuals wearing cones on their heads at banquets, at worship, and in the afterlife.

Despite this abundance of visual evidence, however, archaeologists had never found an actual head cone. This lack of material evidence even prompted some researchers to suggest that the cones never existed and that they were instead purely symbolic, like the halos given to religious figures in Christian art.

A selection of depictions of head cones in Ancient Egyptian art from Amarna

Now, an international team of archaeologists publishing in the latest issue of Antiquity, report the discovery of two head cones from cemeteries at the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna, confirming for the first time the physical existence of this unusual headwear.

The head cones were discovered in the cemeteries at the city of Amarna (called Akhetaten by the ancient Egyptians). This city was built by the pharaoh Akhenaten as a home for the cult of the sun god Aten, whose exclusive worship Akhenaten promoted instead of traditional Egyptian polytheism.

The city was abandoned around a decade after the pharaoh’s death, meaning the settlement was occupied for only 15 years, from 1347 to 1332 BC. Despite this short occupation, the city is extensive, spanning several square kilometers and featuring thousands of graves.

A reconstruction of a burial at the southern Amarna cemetery

The ruins of a pharaoh’s abandoned city attracted ancient looters, who ravaged all four cemeteries at the site. This left archaeologists with the difficult task of piecing together the disturbed burials.

Archaeologists from the Amarna Project, working with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, have been exploring this wealth of evidence since 2005. These excavations are helping to fill in gaps in knowledge created by the rapid excavations during the early days of Egyptology. The work is especially important for helping us to understand the lives of ordinary Egyptians, beyond the ruling elite.

Amongst these individuals were two people buried with head cones. One was a female, aged 20-29 years old at death, whilst the other was a 15-20-year-old of indeterminate sex.

Individual 150 in situ with a head cone

Archaeologists have long discussed the significance of head cones. Before this new discovery, some scholars argued that the cones did not exist as real objects but rather were symbols used in artistic representations. Others, however, suggested that they did exist but were made of materials that did not survive in the archaeological record. One popular hypothesis was that they were an unguent – pieces of fat or wax perfumed, perhaps with myrrh.

As the cone melted, the scent was released, with some ancient Egyptian literature suggesting that this process would purify the wearer.

The Amarna head cones were discovered in fragments, but archaeologists have been able to reconstruct their overall shape. Specialists were also able to use portable equipment to carry out several kinds of non-destructive spectroscopy on the cones.

This analysis reveals the cones were hollow and made of wax, most likely beeswax. However, contrary to expectations, there is little evidence they contained unguent.

Why the cones were included in these two burials is difficult to know. They may have been thought to purify the wearer, enhancing their spiritual powers to allow them to engage with the rituals and deities encountered in the afterlife. Another possibility is that they were connected with ideas of fertility and resurrection. Whatever their purpose and significance, the Amarna cones provide the first opportunity to investigate an important ancient Egyptian tradition that, until now, we weren’t even sure existed.

A reconstruction of the two cones, revealing they are hollow
EUROPE, WORLD

Possible Viking-Era Grave Discovered in Estonia

Possible Viking-era Grave Discovered in Estonia

Estonia’s biggest find of Viking sword fragments was found on the northern coast of the country last year. Burial artifacts found in the same area this year suggest that the swords were used by local warriors from the ancient county of Rävala.

Mauri Kiudsoo, an archaeologist and curator of the Tallinn Collection of Archeological Research University, said to BSN that, this year’s burial site discovered lied just a few dozen meters from last year’s find and that both the grave and the sword find date back to the 10th century.

Kiudsoo said, “These findings are related.” “A brooch we find suggests that local soldiers of the ancient county of Rävala used the weapons.” Archeologists discovered an in-ground burial site on the north Estonian coast, once the territory of the ancient county of Rävala, earlier this year.

During the plowing of the tomb, archaeologists came across fragments of spearheads, bridles, scythes and single-edged combat knives. 

The site also revealed a crossbow-shaped brooch with heads modeled after a poppy capsule that had been disfigured in a fire and a pair of spring scissors.

Type H sword pommel found in a cenotaph in northern Estonia before cleaning. Source: Mauri Kiudsoo

The same burial site revealed two collections of about one hundred fragments of Viking swords in all last year. It was the single largest find of Viking sword fragments in Estonia. The two collections discovered last year were just 80 meters apart and are very likely cenotaphs – tombs in honor of people whose remains are buried elsewhere.

The news of a discovery of roughly one hundred Viking sword fragments was picked up by many archeological and historical publications all over the world, with most of them associating the find with warriors from Scandinavia.

“This is probably not the case,” Kiudsoo said. “The site discovered this year gives us good reason to believe that the nearby cenotaphs constitute symbolic burials for warriors from Rävala, not Swedish or Danish Vikings who perished on the Eastern Route.”

Type H sword pommel found in a cenotaph in northern Estonia before cleaning. Source: Mauri Kiudsoo

“It cannot be claimed absolutely, but it is likely the two cenotaphs are dedicated to Rävala warriors who perished in one or two battles or campaigns far from home,” Kiudsoo said.

The archeologist explained that weapons used in the Baltic Sea region were quite similar during the Viking Age. “That is why it is impossible to draw conclusions based on swords and spearheads alone regarding the origin of the people who wielded them. The same types of swords were used by Scandinavians, Estonians’ ancestors, but also Livonians, Curonians or any other peoples who inhabited the region during the Viking Era.”

However, it is possible to draw conclusions of the origin of the warriors using jewelry. Kiudsoo said that types of jewelry are often local as jewelry that was widespread in Gotland was usually worn by people from Gotland and types common in Estonia by people from that region.

“Crossbow-shaped brooches were usually worn by warriors from southwestern Finland and northwestern Estonia on the passage that intersects with the main thoroughfare of the Eastern Route,” Kiudsoo said. The burial site unearthed this year revealed purposefully broken and burnt pieces of a crossbow-shaped brooch with heads modeled after poppy capsules.

Kiudsoo said that flat crossbow-shaped brooches with poppy capsule heads are characteristic of northwestern Estonia. “This type of brooch did not take root in Scandinavia, with only a few found in isolation in Väntholmen in Sweden and the Eketorp fort in Oland,” he added.

Fragment of a crossbow-shaped brooch with poppy capsule heads (the poppy-shaped head)

Crossbow-shaped brooches with poppy capsule heads resemble crossbow brooches but have different construction and are much larger. It is the largest type of brooch worn in Estonia.

The construction of the burial site discovered this year also points to local origin. Kiudsoo said it was an in-ground cremation burial where the deceased’s burned remains were placed in a hole or a hollow in the ground and covered with earth and rocks. This type of burial was much more widely used in northern Estonia during the Viking Era than previously believed and was also used in western Estonia.

Kiudsoo added that the spring scissors make for one of the more interesting finds from the cremation burial. Such scissors were used both for sheep shearing and cutting cloth at the time.

Spring scissors found at the cenotaph. 

Only two Estonian burial sites have yielded similar scissors in the past: the Kurna site in Harju County and the Keskvere barrow in Lääne County. Spring scissors have also been found from the Peedu fort, the Rõuge fortified settlement, and the Tartu settlement layer, with the latter dating from 1030-61. It is often difficult to date scissors without context due to the tools lacking distinguishing marks.

Last year’s Rävala finds constitute the largest single collection of Viking Era weapon fragments in Estonia. The find included fragments of sword types deemed rare for the region. The Rävala find yielded dozens of type H hilt swords, also individual type E and V fragments, with the latter two considered rarer.

The reason why the sets did not produce intact swords has to do with ancient burial traditions. Finds from the region and the period typically see weapons accompanying buried warriors “killed”, meaning they have been destroyed or rendered unusable.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Scans Reveal Archangel Michael Tattoo on Mummy’s Thigh

Scans Reveal Archangel Michael Tattoo on Mummy’s Thigh

High-tech testing on eight Egyptian mummies from the British Museum by a team of scientists from London uncovered fascinating information, including discoveries that one of the mummies has a tattoo symbolizing the Archangel Michael on her inner thigh.

Scanning an Egyptian mummy.

The 8 mummies were from different eras, from kings to people who passed through the Nile. They came from different walks of life.

One of the mummies was only around two years of age when he died, while others lived to see their 50th birthday.

The oldest mummy tested is more than 5,500 years old, while the most recent lived around 1,300 years ago.

The mummies underwent computerized tomography scans (CAT scans) and infra-red reflectography at London hospital, which revealed what lay underneath their wrappings for the first time.

A photograph left, and infra-red reflectography of the tattoo found on the mummified remains of a Sudanese woman.

The scans enabled the scientists to build up a 3D image of the ancient remains, revealing bones, tissue, and vital organs.

The results revealed that the Egyptians suffered from some of the same health issues that plague us today, including high cholesterol, fatty diets, heart problems, and dental issues.

But most fascinating of all was the discovery of a tattoo on a female mummy, aged between 20 and 35, which Dr. David Antoine, curator of physical anthropology at the British Museum, described as “truly a unique and remarkable find”.

The 1,300-year-old female mummy was different from the others in that her remains were found in Sudan and she had been naturally-preserved by the hot and arid environment.

Her tattoo represents the symbol of the Archangel Michael, who features in both the Old and New Testaments, and who was the Patron Saint of Medieval Sudan.

“The tattoo on her right inner thigh represents a monogram that spells Michael in ancient Greek,” said Dr. Antoine. “We have found other examples of the monogram, but never in the form of a tattoo.

Michael is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. In the New Testament Michael leads God’s armies against Satan’s forces in the Book of Revelation, where during the war in heaven he defeats Satan.

Christian sanctuaries to Michael appeared in the 4th century, when he was first seen as a healing angel, and then over time as a protector and the leader of the army of God against the forces of evil.

By the 6th century, devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread both in the Eastern and Western Churches.

The mummies and the detailed results of the scans will be available for the first time in a new exhibition opening on at the British Museum titled “Ancient Lives: New Discoveries”.

All In One Magazine