Viking Age Horse Bridle Found Under The Ice 2,000 Meters Above Sea Level
Glacial archaeologists working in Norway have once again discovered fascinating ancient artifacts under the ice. Near a mountain pass, not far from Norway’s highest mountain, Galdhøpiggen, archaeologists have found traces of horse travel.
Galdhøpiggen is the tallest mountain in Norway.
A metal bit and parts of the leather straps that fasten around the horse’s head have emerged from under the ice.
“The bridle has a shape that suggests it could be from the Viking Age,” Espen Finstad, a glacial archaeologist at Innlandet County Municipality told Science In Norway.
Viking Age People And Horses Crossed The Tall Norwegian Mountain
Galdhøpiggen is the highest mountain in Norway, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe. The 2,469-metre-tall (8,100 ft) mountain is located in Lom Municipality, and the Jotunheimen Mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The view from the top is spectacular and Galdhøpiggen is today a popular tourist attraction, but one has to be careful and have good knowledge of climbing to get to the top.
Based on earlier excavations, scientists have been able to determine the traffic through a mountain pass on Lomseggen was at its peak during the Viking Age.
Snow and ice melting in the area have previously exposed hundreds of ancient artifacts in the region, revealing that Norwegians used this mountain pass for more than 1,200 years.
An ancient brindle offers evidence horses crossed the area.
However, as reported by Science in Norway, “the bridle that archaeologists have found this year suggests that it wasn’t just people who walked here.
Horses have also been part of the journey, almost 2,000 meters above sea level.
“We have never made such a discovery before. It essentially completes the picture that this is an ancient travel route,” Finstad says.
Carbon-14 Dating Will Reveal The Age Of The Bridle
The strap, or halter, which is attached to the bit, is especially exciting for the archaeologists.
It actually makes it possible to date the horse bridle.
Through carbon-14 dating, the archaeologists will find out if the find really is from the Viking Age.
The archaeologists also found part of an old horseshoe that had been lying under the ice.
Finstad estimates it will take a few months to get the final answer, but they are fairly certain that it originates from the Iron Age or the early Middle Ages.
Horse Manure And Horseshoes
The horse bridle is just one of the discoveries archaeologists have made on this year’s expedition.
We just made an incredibly discovery on the south side of the Lendbreen pass: An iron horse bit, with parts of the leather bridle preserved!❤️ It could well be from the Viking Age, when traffic through the pass was at its peak. But let's see what the radiocarbon date says. pic.twitter.com/cIRNXsZD9Y
They also found horse manure, textiles, horseshoes, leaf fodder, part of a horse snowshoe, a knife, and a variety of small wooden objects. Altogether, around 150 items.
Even though the mountain pass is like a gold mine for archaeologists, the finds are extremely rare in the grand scheme of things, Finnes points out.
The most special thing is that organic materials like wood, leather, textiles, and faeces have been preserved.
The ice has functioned as a freezer for hundreds of years. But now it’s melting.
“The fact that the ice is now melting due to man-made climate change is tragic. The paradox is that new and exciting knowledge about our common past is emerging,” Finnes says.
A remarkable ancient world is hidden beneath the ice, and now we are slowly learning more about it.
Alexander the Great’s Tomb: All the Claims in One of History’s Greatest Mysteries
For over 2,300 years, researchers and historians have been trying to locate Alexander the Great’s Tomb, which remains one of the world’s greatest mysteries even to this day.
There are several attestations that go back to the Roman era, as historians of the time recorded the visits made by Roman emperors to the great general’s tomb in Alexandria. It is natural for many to believe that the great Greek military genius and conqueror of Asia would wish to be buried in the city that bears his name.
Yet, for centuries now, theories abound about the location of Alexander the Great’s Tomb, with some verging on myth. Most recently, an Egyptian tourism official reported on supposed evidence suggesting that the discovery of the famed tomb might be in the Siwa Oasis in the Marai area. There was a shrine there devoted to the chief Egyptian God Amun, whom the Greeks called Ammon and equated with their god Zeus. It indeed was Alexander’s favourite place.
Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus, by Philoxenus of Eretria.
The first burial in Memphis
According to the historian Pausanias and the contemporary Panan Chronicle records for the 321-320 BC period, Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals, initially buried him in Memphis, Egypt. In the late 4th or early 3rd century BC during the early Ptolemaic dynasty, Alexander’s body was transferred from Memphis to Alexandria, where his sarcophagus was placed in the Serapeum complex, built by Pharaoh Nectanbo II.
Alexandria is considered by most to be the actual location of Alexander the Great’s Tomb.
Roman emperors visit the tomb in Alexandria
Several Roman emperors acknowledged the greatness of the Greek conqueror of Asia and professed their admiration for his feats, according to contemporary historians. Julius Caesar visited Alexander the Great’s Tomb in Alexandria in 48 BC, paying his respects. Later, Queen Cleopatra took gold from the tomb to finance her war against the Roman emperor Octavian.
Following Cleopatra’s death, Augustus visited Alexander’s burial place in Alexandria. He was said to have placed flowers on the tomb and a golden diadem upon the general’s head. Another historian of the Roman era wrote that Caligula visited the tomb of Alexander the Great and took his breastplate.
In 199 AD, Septimius Severus visited the tomb in Alexandria and ordered that it be sealed in order to stop ongoing looting. In 215 AD, items from Alexander’s tomb were relocated by Caracalla, who removed Alexander’s tunic, his ring, his belt and some other precious items and deposited them in the coffin.
A tsunami in 356 AD inundated the city after a series of earthquakes, resulting in rising sea levels. The waters of the Nile Delta caused Alexandria to slowly sink as much as twelve feet since Alexander’s time. In essence, the burial ground of Alexander must have sunk quite deep into the seabed by now, along with much of the ancient city, on top of which the modern city is located.
Alexander enters Babylon.
Egypt as the burial ground of Alexander the Great
While the common belief is that the tomb of Alexander the Great is in Alexandria, 140 separate, fruitless attempts to locate it have been recorded by the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities. These attempts have generated several theories as to the exact spot where Alexander lies—the oldest one being that the tomb is in the centre of the ancient city. Several scholars of the 19th century, such as Tasos Neroutsos, Heinrich Kiepert, and Ernst von Sieglin agreed with this theory.
In 1850, Ambroise Schilizzi announced the discovery of Alexander’s supposed mummy and tomb inside the Nabi Daniel Mosque in Alexandria. Yet, no permission to excavate was given, nor was it granted later.
Dedication of King Alexander to Athena Polias at Priene.
The Venetian theory
There is even a theory that places Alexander the Great’s tomb in Venice and, specifically, in the city’s St. Mark’s Cathedral. The theory is dismissed by several scholars as being far-fetched with many religious undertones. According to the particular supposition, when the Arabs took over Alexandria, they wanted to rid the city of anything pre-Islamic, so the burial place of Alexander—who had been worshipped as a god—would have to go.
Alexandria was also the last resting place of Mark, one of the four Christian Gospel writers, who is Venice’s patron saint. A variation of the Venice theory has Venetian merchants stealing Alexander’s remains believed to belong to Saint Mark the Evangelist and transferring them to the saint’s basilica in Venice.
Dr. Andrew Michael Chugg, who wrote the book The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great seems to adapt the theory based on a piece of the sarcophagus of the pharaoh Nectanbo II. Alexander’s original tomb in Memphis was built by Pharaoh Nectanbo II inside the Serapeum complex. The sculptures of Greek poets and philosophers suggest that Alexander the Great’s tomb was inside that complex.
Amazingly, a piece of masonry found in the foundations of Saint Mark’s in Venice matches the dimensions of Nectanbo II’s sarcophagus in the British Museum, indicating that Alexander’s tomb is inside Saint Mark’s tomb under the Basilica.
Since Alexander’s body disappeared in 392 AD, and the tomb of Saint Mark appeared at the same time, Chugg believes that the Venetian merchants stole the body, mistaking it for Saint Mark’s.
Indeed, stranger things have happened in history.
3D representation of the Kasta Hill tomb structure in Amphipolis.
Is Alexander the Great buried in Vergina?
In 1993, Greek archaeologist Triantafyllos Papazois developed the theory that it is not Philip II of Macedon who is buried in the royal tomb II at Vergina, Greece, but it is actually Alexander the Great while his son Alexander IV is buried in tomb III. Papazois further concluded that the breastplate, shield, helmet and sword found in tomb II belong to the armour of Alexander the Great.
However, the archaeologist’s theory has never been proven.
The mystery of the Amphipolis Tomb
In 2014, Greece and the rest of the world were shaken by the news of the discovery of the tomb of Alexander the Great in Amphipolis in northern Greece. The large Alexander-era tomb at Kasta hill in Amphipolis once again led to speculation about Alexander’s final resting place. Some have speculated that it was built for Alexander but not used due to Ptolemy I Soter having seized the funeral cortege and turning it away from its initial destination.
The findings on the site led to speculation that it was a memorial dedicated to Alexander’s close friend, Hephaestion. Andrew Chugg speculated that the tomb belongs to Alexander’s mother, Olympias, or Roxanne, his wife, with the former being the most likely.
Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela; 18th-century ivory relief.
Getting closer to Alexander the Great’s tomb
Greek archaeologist Calliope Limneos-Papakosta has made it her life’s mission to find the Holy Grail of researchers, Alexander the Great’s tomb. The Director of the Hellenic Research Institute of the Alexandrian Civilization, Limneos-Papakosta has been digging for over fifteen years at sites around the Shallalat Gardens, a public park in the heart of Alexandria.
The Greek archaeologist and her team have dug over ten meters (35 feet) under modern-day Alexandria to find the man the city is named after. Limneos-Paleokosta and her team have found the first roads built in the city, as well as the foundation of an enormous public building over 200 feet long; they believe this area is the ancient royal quarter.
The archaeologist and her team used an elaborate system of pumps to dry up the area so that they could continue to dig. Limneos-Papakosta’s persistence paid off, adding the much-needed optimism about her endeavour: Her team did uncover an early Hellenistic statue bearing hallmarks of Alexander the Great.
The marble statue most definitely depicts “Alexander the Great, the Spear Bearer.” It was created with the same technique as the great sculptor Lysippus—that is, with the head tilted downwards and to the side. The statue, which is now universally acknowledged to represent the great general, is now exhibited at the National Museum of Alexandria. Perhaps this is proof that we really are closer to the unravelling of the great mystery of the tomb of Alexander the Great than we have ever been before.
However, it is also possible that the great conqueror who believed he was the son of Zeus will continue to hide in the depths of history remaining forever immortal.
Almost all living people outside of Africa trace back to a single migration more than 50,000 years ago
Australian Aborigines have long been cast as a people apart. Although Australia is halfway around the world from our species’ accepted birthplace in Africa, the continent is nevertheless home to some of the earliest undisputed signs of modern humans outside Africa, and Aborigines have unique languages and cultural adaptations.
Eske Willerslev (left) meets Aboriginal elders during the genetic sampling project he led.PREBEN HJORT, MAYDAY FILM
Some researchers have posited that the ancestors of the Aborigines were the first modern humans to surge out of Africa, spreading swiftly eastward along the coasts of southern Asia thousands of years before the second wave of migrants populated Eurasia.
Not so, according to a trio of genomic studies, the first to analyze many full genomes from Australia and New Guinea. They conclude that, like most other living Eurasians, Aborigines descend from a single group of modern humans who swept out of Africa 50,000 to 60,000 years ago and then spread in different directions.
The papers “are really important,” says population geneticist Joshua Akey of the University of Washington, Seattle, offering powerful testimony that “the vast majority of non-Africans [alive today] trace their ancestry back to a single out-of-Africa event.”
Yet the case isn’t closed. One study argues that an earlier wave of modern humans contributed traces to the genomes of living people from Papua New Guinea. And perhaps both sides are right, says archaeologist Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, a co-author on that paper who has long argued for an early expansion out of Africa. “We’re converging on a model where later dispersals swamped the earlier ones,” he says.
Aubrey Linch, an Aboriginal elder, agreed to participate in a project to study his people’s roots.PREBEN HJORT, MAYDAY FILM
A decade ago, some researchers proposed the controversial idea that an early wave of modern humans left Africa more than 60,000 years ago via a so-called coastal or southern route.
These people would have launched their migration from Ethiopia, crossing the Red Sea at its narrowest point to the Arabian Peninsula, then rapidly pushing east along the South Asian coastline all the way to Australia.
Some genetic studies, many on mitochondrial DNA of living people, supported this picture by indicating a relatively early split between Aborigines and other non-Africans. But analysis of whole genomes— the gold standard for population studies— was scanty for many key parts of the world.
Three large groups of geneticists independently set out to fill the gaps, adding hundreds of fully sequenced genomes from Africa, Australia, and Papua New Guinea to existing databases. Each team used complex computer models and statistical analyses to interpret the population history behind the patterns of similarity and difference in the genomes.
A team led by evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen zeroed in on Australia and New Guinea in what Akey calls a “landmark” paper detailing the colonization of Australia. By comparing Aboriginal genomes to other groups, they conclude that Aborigines diverged from Eurasians between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago after the whole group had already split from Africans. That means Aborigines and all other non-African people descend from the same out-of-Africa sweep, and that Australia was initially settled only once, rather than twice as some earlier evidence had suggested. Patterns in the Aboriginal DNA also point to a genetic bottleneck about 50,000 years ago: the lasting legacy of the small group that first colonized the ancient continent.
The majority of Aboriginal people here in Australia believe that we have been here in this land for many thousands of years. I am ‘over the moon with the findings.
COLLEEN WALL, A CO-AUTHOR ON THE WILLERSLEV PAPER AND ELDER OF THE ABORIGINAL DAUWA KAU’BVAI NATION IN WYNNUM, AUSTRALIA
In another paper, a team led by population geneticist David Reich of Harvard University comes to a similar conclusion after examining 300 genomes from 142 populations. “The take-home message is that modern human people today outside of Africa are descended from a single founding population almost completely,” Reich says. “You can exclude and rule out an earlier migration; the southern route.”
But the third paper, by a team led by Mait Metspalu of the Estonian Biocentre in Tartu, makes a different claim. Analyzing 379 new genomes from 125 populations worldwide, the group concludes that at least 2% of the genomes of people from Papua New Guinea come from an early dispersal of modern humans, who left Africa perhaps 120,000 years ago. Their paper proposes that Homo sapiens left Africa in at least two waves.
Reich questions that result, but says that his and Willerslev’s studies can’t rule out a contribution of only 1% or 2% from an earlier H. sapiens migration. Akey says: “As population geneticists, we could spend the next decade arguing about that 2%, but in practical terms, it doesn’t matter.” The most recent migration “explains more than 90% of the ancestry of living people.”
Still, changes in climate and sea level would have favored earlier migrations, according to a fourth Nature paper. Axel Timmermann and Tobias Friedrich of the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in Honolulu, reconstructed conditions in northeastern Africa and the Middle East, based on the astronomical cycles that drove the ice ages. They find that a wetter climate and lower sea levels could have enticed humans to cross from Africa into the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East during four periods, roughly around 100,000, 80,000, 55,000, and 37,000 years ago. “I’m very happy,” Petraglia says. His and others’ discoveries of early stone tools in India and Arabia suggest that moderns did expand out of Africa during the early migration windows. But those lineages mostly died out.
The major migration, with more people reaching all the way to Australia, came later. “Demographically, after 60,000 years ago something happens, with larger waves of moderns across Eurasia,” Petraglia says. “All three papers agree with that.”
The studies show Aborigines’ ties to other Eurasians but also reinforce Australia’s relatively early settlement and long isolation. As such, they reaffirm its unique place in the human story. The continent holds “deep, deep divisions and roots that we don’t see anywhere else except Africa,” Willerslev says. That echoes the views of Aborigines themselves.
“The majority of Aboriginal people here in Australia believe that we have been here in this land for many thousands of years,” Colleen Wall, a co-author on the Willerslev paper and elder of the Aboriginal Dauwa Kau’bvai Nation in Wynnum, Australia, wrote in an email to Science. “I am ‘over the moon with the findings.”
3,000-Year-Old Cuneiform Tablet Reveals Previously Unknown Language
Words from a “lost” language spoken more than 3,000 years ago have been discovered on an ancient clay tablet unearthed in Turkey.
Almost 30,000 clay tablets covered in cuneiform writing have been unearthed at Boğazköy-Hattuşa. Most of them are written in Hittite; this one at the British Museum records a peace treaty.
Archaeologists discovered the tablet earlier this year during excavations at Boğazköy-Hattuşa in north-central Turkey, the site of Hattusha, the Hittite capital from about 1600 B.C. until about 1200 B.C. and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Annual expeditions to the site led by Andreas Schachner, an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Institute, have unearthed thousands of clay tablets written in cuneiform — perhaps the most ancient written script, created by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago.
The tablets are “mainly found in clusters connected to half a dozen buildings,” sometimes described as archives or libraries, Schachner told Live Science. “But we find text all over the [site] that are moved around by erosion.”
Most of the tablets unearthed at Boğazköy-Hattuşa are written in the language of the Hittites, but a few include words from other languages — apparently because the Hittites were interested in foreign religious rituals.
The words in the previously unknown language appear to be from such a ritual, which was recorded on a single clay tablet along with writing in Hittite explaining what it was.
“The introduction is in Hittite,” Schachner said in an email. “It is clear that it is a ritual text.”
The words in the “lost” language were written in cuneiform script on a clay tablet found at Boğazköy-Hattuşa. They seem to be from a foreign religious ritual written down by Hittite scribes.
Lost language
The clay tablet was one of several sent to Germany to be analyzed, where it was studied by Daniel Schwemer, a professor and chair of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Würzburg.
From the Hittite introduction, he identified it as the language of Kalašma, a region on the north-western edge of the Hittite heartland near the modern Turkish city of Bolu.
The scholars don’t know what it says yet, and they’re not releasing any photographs of the tablet until it has been fully studied.
But they’ve determined that it belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European family of languages, which the Hittite language also belonged to; other ancient languages in the region, including Akkadian, Hebrew and Aramaic, belong to the Semitic family of languages.
The ruins near the Turkish town of Boğazköy were discovered in the 19th century. They have since been revealed as the remains of Hattusha, the capital city of the Hittite Empire.
Schwemer said in a statement that “the Hittites were uniquely interested in recording rituals in foreign languages.” Extracts of rituals in other foreign languages have also been found in the tablets from Boğazköy-Hattuşa, including in the Indo-European languages Luwian and Palaic and a non-Indo-European language known as Hattic.
Such ritual texts were written by Hittite scribes and reflected various Anatolian, Syrian and Mesopotamian traditions and linguistic milieus.
“The rituals provide valuable glimpses into the little-known linguistic landscapes of Late Bronze Age Anatolia, where not just Hittite was spoken,” Schwemer said.
The Hittite Empire was a major power in the eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, ruling most of Anatolia (modern Turkey) and what’s now Syria From about 1600 B.C. to about 1200 B.C.
Hittite Empire
For centuries, the Hittites, who ruled over most of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and Syria, were among the most powerful empires in the ancient world. In 1274 B.C., the Hittites fought the Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptians for control of Canaan — what’s now southern Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
The battle may be the earliest military action ever recorded. It seems to have been a defeat for the Hittites; although they kept control of the city of Kadesh, the Egyptians kept control of Canaan.
Hattusha became the Hittite capital in about 1600 B.C.; and more than 100 years of archaeological excavations at the site have revealed a vast ancient city there.
But it was abandoned in about 1200 B.C. during the cataclysmic “Late Bronze Age collapse” that suddenly ended or damaged many ancient states in the eastern Mediterranean; the collapse has been ascribed to invasions by migrants called the “Sea Peoples”, sudden climate changes, and disruptive new technologies like iron — but historians and archaeologists debate the causes.
Schachner said it wasn’t possible to foresee if any other writings in the “lost” language would be found, or if extracts from still other ancient languages would be found in the tablets from Boğazköy-Hattuşa.
The mystery of ‘The Screaming Mummy’ is finally revealed, and it’s chilling
He’s back. Prince Pentawere, a man who tried (probably successfully) to murder his own father, Pharaoh Ramesses III, and later took his own life after he was put on trial, is now on public display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Pentawere’s mummy, popularly known as the “screaming mummy,” was not properly mummified. No embalming fluid was used, and his body was allowed to naturally mummify with his mouth agape and his facial muscles strained in order to make it appear as if the mummy were screaming.
Whether he died screaming or whether he was made to look like that after death is unclear.
The “screaming mummy,” likely that of Prince Pentawere, a man who tried (likely successfully) to kill his own father pharaoh Ramesses III, is now on public display at the Egyptian Museum.
Those burying him then wrapped his body in sheepskin, a material the ancient Egyptians considered to be ritually impure.
Eventually, someone placed Pentawere’s mummy in a cache of other mummies in a tomb at Deir el-Bahari.
The prince can take solace in the fact that his assassination attempt appears to have been successful. In 2012, a team of scientists studying the mummy of Ramesses III (reign 1184-1155 B.C.) found that Ramesses III died after his throat was slashed, likely in the assassination attempt that Pentawere helped to orchestrate.
The scientists also performed genetic analysis, which confirmed that the “screaming mummy” was a son of Ramesses III. And, based on the mummy’s unusual burial treatment, the researchers confirmed that it is likely Pentawere’s mummy.
To kill a pharaoh
The Judicial Papyrus of Turin, as modern-day scholars call it, is a manuscript that documents the trials that occurred after Pentawere’s apparently successful attempt at killing his father in 1155 B.C.
A group of butlers who remained loyal to Ramesses III — and his successor, Ramesses IV — oversaw the trial of a vast number of people who had allegedly aided Pentawere, condemning them to death or mutilation.
These conspirators included military and civil officials, women in the royal harem (where the murder of Ramesses III may have happened), and a number of men who were in charge of the royal harem.
Prince Pentawere was allegedly assisted by his mother, a woman named Tiye (no relation to King Tutankhamun), who was one of Ramesses III’s wives.
The judicial papyrus says that Prince Pentawere “was brought in because he had been in collusion with Tiye, his mother, when she had plotted the matters with the women of the harem” (translation by A. de Buck).
Pentawere “was placed before the butlers in order to be examined; they found him guilty; they left him where he was; he took his own life,” the papyrus says.
How exactly Pentawere killed himself is a matter of debate among scholars, with poisoning and hanging (or a combination of the two) generally regarded as being the most likely methods.
While the dead Pharaoh Ramesses III was initially buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, his mummy was moved after the robbery of his tomb. Interestingly, his mummy was dumped in the same mummy cache at Deir el-Bahari as Pentawere’s.
The mummies of the murdered father and his killer son rested together until the family of a man named Abd el-Rassul found the cache in the 19th century.
The screaming mummy is only being displayed temporarily. The display of the mummy has received widespread media attention and it is not clear how long it will be displayed.
Golf course workers dig up 4,000-year-old tree-trunk coffin with warrior skeleton holding axe
Archaeologists in England have analyzed a half-ton coffin dating to the early Bronze Age that was found under a golf course in Lincolnshire County.
York Archeological Trusts Ian Panter moves part of the tree coffin into its preservation bath.
One end of the tree coffin has a notch cut out, which scientists removed in order to determine the tree’s age using dendrochronology, but as it was a fast-growing species only carbon-14 dating would work.
The coffin, cut from a single oak tree and thought to be about 4,000 years old, contained human remains, a hafted axe, and a bed of plant material meant to cushion the body in its eternal slumber.
Maintenance workers discovered the burial in July 2019 while tending to a water hazard at the Tetney Golf Club in Grimsby. The coffin was under a gravel mound, a special situation that indicates a certain amount of community involvement in the burial.
As is standard for objects of historical significance found in England and Wales, the find was reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which processes such reports and ensures that the objects are properly handed.
Objects made of old wood (think shipwrecks, coffins, and even ship burials) are prone to disintegration when they are removed from water or soil after millennia and exposed to sunlight and air. To prevent that from happening to the find, the excavated objects were immediately put in bags filled with groundwater, and the coffin was put in cold storage for a year.
Afterward, the coffin was moved to the York Archaeological Trust, where conservators have been working on it and the associated artifacts, including an axe.
Ian Panter works on the 4,000-year-old oak coffin.
“The man buried at Tetney lived in a very different world to ours, but like ours, it was a changing environment; rising sea levels and coastal flooding ultimately covered his grave and burial mound in a deep layer of silt that aided its preservation,” said Tim Allen, a Sheffield-based archaeologist for Historic England, in a York Archaeological Trust press release.
An interesting component of the work was the environmental analysis of the plant bedding.
Hugh Willmott, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield who participated in the excavations, said on Twitter that moss, yew or juniper, hazelnuts, and leaf buds were found in the coffin.
The types of floral remains indicated that the burial likely took place toward the end of spring, some four millennia ago, when a few woolly mammoths still survived. Willmott said in an email to Gizmodo that the hazelnuts may have been a food offering, while the moss could have been a sort of bed for the deceased.
Not much is currently known about the human remains, though the archaeological team suspects it was an individual of some social importance.
Willmott said that initial attempts to extract DNA have been unsuccessful. Dating the coffin is still ongoing—the archaeologists need to do a combination of dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating, which they can cross-reference to find out the year the tree was felled, give or take a couple of years.
The long-shafted axe found in the coffin has a small head.
A shockingly well-preserved axe was found with the person; the handle looks like it could have been varnished yesterday. The axe head is a combination of stone and fossilized coral.
Based on the object’s shape and size—the axe head is less than 4 inches across—the team believes it was a symbol of authority rather than a practical tool. There are very few such axes known in Britain, perhaps only 12, according to the York Archaeological Trust, making this one of the most eye-catching elements of the discovery.
The wooden coffin joins some 65-odd objects like those found around England. Preservationists said in the same release that the axe should be fully preserved within the year, but the coffin will take at least two years to fully treat due to the object’s size.
This research comes on the heels of the University of Sheffield’s decision to close its archaeology department, as reported by the BBC in July, and the University of Worcester announcing the closure of its archaeology department, also reported by the BBC.
The Campaign to Save British Archaeology was launched in response to the closures. This trend is a troubling one. Had the Sheffield archaeological team not been close by when the Bronze Age coffin was unearthed, the cultural heritage could’ve quickly deteriorated.
Thanks to the quick thinking of the nearby archaeologists, the objects are being preserved and will be displayed at the Collection Museum in Lincolnshire.
Ancient Wooden ‘Coptic Dolls’ May Have Been The Ancestors Of Today’s Barbie Dolls
For as long as anyone can remember, children loved to play with various toys, but kids living a long time ago did not have parents who could walk into a shop and buy something entertaining. Yet, there is archaeological evidence that that our ancestors did take the time to carve and build things their children could play with. Sometimes, archaeologists uncover ancient artifacts that may have been used for a number of purposes?
Ancient figurines made in the image of humans were often used during ritual ceremonies or as burial gifts, but could some of these human-like figures have been toys, too?
“These bone figurines were first recognized as a homogenous artifact group by Joseph Strzygowski in 1904, although earlier mentions exist. In his volume “Koptische Kunst”, he described 13 “puppen” from the Cairo Museum and was the irst to suggest they were toys rather than cult figurines.
Not all researchers agree. Strzygowski concluded a pre-Islamic origin and dated the dolls between the 4th and 12th centuries.
A fragment with a religious Christian Greek inscription, supporting his pre-Islamic origin thesis, was in a group of figurines that he had purchased in Cairo in 1900-1901 for the Kaiser Friederich Museum. Some of these were published later by Sir Leonard Woolley (1907) and Oskar Wulf (1909).
Although Strzygowski never actually used the term “Coptic dolls,” it was already attached to them by Woolley, and continues to be used even today. This is probably because Strzygowski, and Gayet before him, published them in volumes titled “Coptic Art.” 1
In the Early Islamic period (7th to 11th centuries CE), a unique type of figurine with human-like characteristics, made of bone, began to appear. Ariel Shatil, an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist specializing in dolls and figurines, sheds light on these intriguing artifacts.
“Some researchers speculate that these figurines served as toy dolls, while others suggest they might have been fertility figurines. What is particularly fascinating is that no two dolls were identical; each possessed distinct features, even if they shared the same concept.
These dolls appeared in the Early Islamic period, over a period of about two or three centuries, after which they mysteriously disappeared from the scene,” Shatil explains.
Shatil continues, “Moreover, distinct regional styles emerged. For instance, in the northern part of the country, the figurines had more schematic features, and they were crafted from flat bones such as animal ribs and adorned with dots and circles.
By contrast, in the southern part of the country and in the desert, the figurines were more human-like and realistic.
Most of the figurines are depicted naked, without clothes, but there is a group of figurines wearing garments. The exact purpose of the figurines—whether fertility symbols to encourage procreation or simply toys—remains a subject of debate.”
The picture shows a figurine with schematic features, reflecting Egyptian characteristics, dating to the Abbasid period, uncovered in the excavations carried out next to the Western Wall precinct in Jerusalem. Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority
Originally crafted in the region of Iran and Iraq, one wonders how these figurines found their way to this area. Following the Muslim conquest of the country, artisans were brought in to construct and decorate palaces.
Alongside the monumental art displayed in these palaces, these same artisans introduced or crafted these figurines, producing them in considerable quantities as they gained popularity within all social classes.
“Although predominantly made of bone, there are also ivory figurines, possibly belonging to wealthier families,” Ariel observes. “But, by the end of the eleventh century, these figurines disappeared from the scene, probably due to restrictions imposed in accordance with Islamic law.”
A palatial 1,500-year-old Maya structure unearthed in Mexico
Here we see the foreground of one of the buildings during the restoration process.
Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered two housing complexes, including a palace-like building, in the roughly 1,500-year-old Maya city of Kabah on the Yucatán Peninsula.
The team unearthed the buildings, which are the first evidence of residential buildings at this archaeological site, ahead of the Maya Train railroad project, a 930-mile-long (1,500-kilometer) railway that will run through the Yucatán Peninsula.
The palace-like structure is 85 feet (26 meters) long and is decorated with carvings of birds, feathers, and beads, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a translated statement.
The building’s façade has a portico that includes eight pilasters, and rectangular columns that project from the walls.
The palace and the other housing complex were elite living spaces where people slept, ate and lived their daily lives, Lourdes Toscano Hernández, an archaeologist with the INAH who co-led the team, told Live Science in a translated email.
A lineage of people who ruled the city would have lived in the buildings, although their names are not known, Toscano Hernández said.
A view of Kabah, which means “Lord of the strong or powerful hand” in Mayan.
The buildings also may have been used for administrative functions, Toscano Hernández said, noting that public meetings may have been carried out nearby.
The carvings of birds, feathers and beads on the palace-like structure may have symbolized the relationship between the elites who lived in these structures and the Maya gods — something that would have helped to legitimize their status, Toscano Hernández said.
A view of the buildings in the Kabah archaeological zone.
Until recently, the housing complexes, along with other parts of the ancient city, were covered with vegetation, the INAH statement noted.
It’s unclear exactly when the buildings were built, but the city was founded sometime between A.D. 250 and 500 by people who came from the Petén region, an area that includes Guatemala and Belize, according to the statement.
Toscano Hernández said the city’s first ruler may have lived in the structures.
A general view of the Petén palace.
Within the buildings, archaeologists found the remains of pottery, including painted vessels and ceramics that had a utilitarian use, the statement said. Research at the site is ongoing.
The Maya flourished in the region between 250 and 900. While many cities collapsed around 900, new cities, such as Chichén Itzá, were built. Today, their descendants, the modern-day Maya, number in the millions and can be found all over the world.
