More than 4,500 Skeletons Discovered in Islamic Necropolis in Spain
CNN reports that more than 4,500 graves have been identified at a cemetery in northeastern Spain, in an area thought to have been largely untouched by the Arab invasion of the Iberian peninsula in the early 8th century A.D.
In an 8th-century burial ground in the town of Tauste, near Zaragoza in Aragon, the tombs were uncovered, Eva Gimenez, an archaeologist currently excavating the region with the archaeology firm Paleoymás, told CNN.
Muslim occupation of Tauste had been considered “incidental and even non-existent” by traditional and written sources, researchers from the University of the Basque Country have said — but the region’s cultural association had long suspected the area had been home to a large Islamic settlement because of architectural clues and human remains found in the town, Miriam Pina Pardos, director of the Anthropological Observatory of the Islamic Necropolis of Tauste with the El Patiaz cultural association, told CNN.
An ancient Islamic necropolis containing over 4,500 bodies has been uncovered in northeastern Spain, with archaeologists excavating more than 400 tombs in the five-acre site
From 711 to 1492, the boundaries between the Christian north and the Islamic south shifted constantly with the changing sovereign authority, according to researchers from the University of the Basque Country.
DNA studies and carbon dating place remains in the necropolis between the 8th and 11th centuries, according to El Patiaz.
Archaeologists unearth ‘huge number’ of sealed Egyptian sarcophagi Some 44 skeletons were uncovered during smaller excavations in the years following the initial dig, Pina Pardos said, and this year, more than 400 bodies have been found after local authorities ordered an extensive excavation of the area.
Earlier excavations revealed several skeletons at the site.
“It’s rare to do an excavation and to find 400 tombs. It’s amazing,” she said.
All of the skeletons had been buried according to Islamic customs, positioned to the right and facing southeast toward Mecca, Pina Pardos added.
“We can see that the Muslim culture and Islamic presence in this area is more important than we thought,” Gimenez said.
“We can see there was a big Muslim population here in Tauste from the beginning of the presence of Muslims in Spain,” she added.
“It is very important — the 400 Muslim tombs show the people lived here for centuries,” she said.
The remains will be cataloged, stored for research and studied, Pina Pardos said.
Ancient Egyptian Child Mummies Show High Rates Of Anemia
Anemia was common in mummified Ancient Egyptian children, according to a new study that analyzed child mummies in European museums.
Researchers used computed tomography (CT) scans to peer non-invasively through the mummies’ dressings and discovered that one-third of them had signs of anemia; they found evidence of thalassemia in one case, too.
“Our study appears to be the first to illustrate radiological findings not only of the cranial vault but also of the facial bones and postcranial skeleton that indicate thalassemia in an ancient Egyptian child mummy,” the team writes in their published paper.
Paleopathologist Stephanie Panzer and her colleagues from Germany, the US, and Italy, suggest that anemia was likely common in ancient Egypt, and it was probably caused by factors such as malnutrition, parasitic infections, and genetic disorders, which still cause the health problem today.
Researchers have even speculated that Tutankhamun died of sickle cell disease, a cause of anemia. However, as the researchers of this new study explain, “the direct evidence of anemia in human remains from ancient Egypt is rare.”
Anemia is a condition where the body lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the body’s tissues. As Panzer and colleagues studied child mummies, the remains are more likely to show signs of anemia than adult mummies, due to their early death.
Whether or not anemia played a role in each of the children’s deaths could not be determined from the CT scans, but the research team believes it is likely to have contributed. They also looked for signs of diseases that could have caused the anemia.
When ancient humans were mummified, their bodies were preserved in ways that kept more information than those buried. Although modern science doesn’t let researchers remove the wrappings used in the mummification process, they often use scans to ‘look’ through the wrappings and see what’s inside.
CT scans can look at the mummies’ bones, which can provide evidence of anemia because the bone marrow makes red blood cells.
Chronic hemolytic anemia and iron deficiency anemia are often accompanied by an enlargement of the cranial vault (the area of the skull that houses the brain). The researchers hoped to look for this along with further indicators of anemia in the bones, such as porosity, thinning, and changes in shape.
Measuring the porosity and thinness of bones requires a certain level of contrast – often reduced in the CT scans by the density of the preserved tissue and surrounding embalming. After consideration, this assessment, as the authors explain in their paper, “was not feasible in this study because of insufficient CT image quality.”
Overall, the team found that 7 of the 21 child mummies they examined in German, Italian, and Swiss museums had measurable signs of anemia, specifically an enlarged frontal cranial vault.
Moreover, one child – referred to as case 2 – had facial and other bone changes present in thalassemia, a genetic disease in which the body can’t make enough hemoglobin. Case 2 also had a tongue that was larger than usual, which the authors say “probably indicated Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome.”
This genetically unlucky child probably died from thalassemia’s many symptoms, which can include anemia, within 1.5 years of birth.
“The chronologically oldest mummy dated back to the time span between the Old Kingdom (2686–2160 BCE) and the First Intermediate Period (2160–2055 BCE). Most mummies dated to the Ptolemaic (332–30 BCE) and Roman Periods (30 BCE–395 CE),” the researchers state.
As sad as this discovery is, ancient Egyptian mummified remains certainly have revealed some interesting facts and insights about their lives and deaths. While it adds to our understanding, a small-scale study like this does have limitations.
“The collection of investigated child mummies did not represent a population,” the authors note in their paper.
“The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of anemia in ancient Egyptian child mummies and to provide comparative data for future studies.”
Archeologists in Peru found a 1,000-year-old adolescent mummy wrapped in a bundle
Archaeologists have unearthed a more than 1,000-year-old mummy on the outskirts of Peru’s capital, Lima.
The mummified adolescent was wrapped in a funerary bundle, with ceramic objects, rope, bits of skin, and hair nearby, and found in an underground tomb.
Archaeologists believe the mummy, found at an archaeological site in Cajamarquilla, is one of 20 buried in the area likely killed as a ritual sacrifice.
The mummified adolescent was found in a “good state of conservation,” said archaeologist Yomira Huaman, in charge of the Cajamarquilla research project affiliated with the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
The adolescent lived between 1,100 and 1,200 years ago and might have belonged to the Lima or Ichma cultures.
A worker wraps skeletal remains and parts of the funerary bundle of a mummy found by Peruvian archeologists in the ruins of Cajarmarquilla, in the outskirts of Lima, Peru.
The mummy was discovered about 220 yards from where the first mummy of Cajamarquilla was found, explained Huaman, referring to another mummy found nearby last year.
‘From the ceramic analysis, we have identified that it was mostly occupied by the coastal presence, the late Lima culture, also a strong influence of the Ichma culture,’ said Huaman.
The way the teen was buried was unlike other mummies that have been discovered in the past.
Ceramic objects and rope were found near the burial bundle.
Most bodies in Cajamarquilla have been found in simple tombs or funeral chambers, while the adolescent was found in what appeared to be a storage container.
Archaeologists, also they have uncovered the ruins of four pyramid-shaped temples and walls laid out almost like a maze.
While best known for the mountaintop Inca royal retreat of Machu Picchu, Peru was home to a number of pre-Hispanic cultures that flourished in the centuries before the Inca empire rose to power, primarily along the country’s central coast and in the Andes.
The Lima civilization was known for its ceramic artwork, which included styles such as Maranga and interlocking patterns that reflected the nearby Moche culture.
1,800-year-old Wooden Mask Likely Used in Farm Festivals Found in Japan
Archaeologists have unearthed an almost perfectly preserved wooden mask from the early third century at the Nishi-Iwata ruins in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
The discovery was announced by the Osaka Cultural Heritage Center on April 24.
The discovery is the third example of a wooden mask from this period. Experts believe the artifact was important in influential agricultural festivals organized by powerful people at the time.
The wooden mask, hewn from a cedar tree, measures around 30cm in height by 18cm wide and features two eye holes, a mouth, and a perforated hole surviving on one side that probably held string for holding the mask on the wearer’s face.
The mask was found in flood sediment 2.9 meters below the surface of the ground. It was discovered next to a piece of a wooden water bucket and a wooden object in the shape of a hoe that had been burned. Experts believe the three items may well have featured in agricultural festivals.
According to the researchers, the mask may have been used in ceremonial rituals during significant agricultural festivals around 1800 years ago, during the Yayoi era.
During this time, Japan transitioned to a settled agricultural society, employing agricultural methods introduced from Korea in the Kyushu region.
The mask was probably displayed at festivals because it is too heavy to wear, according to Kaoru Terasawa, director of the Research Center for Makimukugaku, Sakurai City, in Nara Prefecture.
Kaoru Terasawa, said: “I believe the mask represented a ‘spirit of a head,’ which was believed to be a god in the shape of a human and represented the authority of Okimi.”
Okimi is the title given to the ruler of the Yamato Kingship, a political alliance of powerful families centered in modern-day Nara Prefecture that ruled from the third to the seventh centuries.
The mask will be on display at the Museum of Yayoi Culture in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, from April 29 to May 7.
Viking Raids and Long-distance Oceanic Explorations Were All Enabled by Tar
What exactly inspired the 8th century Vikings of Scandinavia to sharpen their farming tools, to build ships and conquer Europe, has long been debated.
However, a new study all but closes the case book on this enduring mystery proving the industrial scale production of tar enabled the waterproofing of longships for long-distance raiding missions around Europe, across the Atlantic in North America and eastwards “Down the Russian rivers towards Islamic lands.”
Andreas Hennius of Uppsala University recently published his new findings in a paper titled Viking Age tar production and outland exploitation which can be read on Cambridge.org. He discovered “output from tar pits in Scandinavia increased dramatically just as Vikings began raiding other parts of Europe.”
The Viking Voyagers
Vikings were ruthless seafaring traders and fierce warriors who launched seaborne attacks on Europe from Scandinavia. By the mid-11th century the Viking’s Nordic empire expanded across vast territories in Britain, Iceland, Greenland and America, and as detailed in an article on History.com they also “raided Italian and Spanish ports and even attacked the walls of Constantinople.”
The Oseberg Ship, well-preserved historic ship exhibited in The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.
Hennius told reporters at The Guardian that his new research, which was funded by the Berit Wallenberg Foundation, reveals the tar pits “could produce 300 liters in one production cycle,” which would enable production of more than enough tar to waterproof a large fleet of ships.
“Tar production … developed from a small-scale activity … into large-scale production that relocated to forested outlands during the Viking period,” added Hennius.
Traditionally, archaeologists have proposed that changes in climate boosted agriculture, causing a sharp spike in population, which inspired the Vikings to look for new lands .
Others maintain local chieftains funded treasure hunting raids to further establish their wealth, dominance and power, but now, Hennius had proved that “tar has been used for millennia to waterproof boats. It was made in pits filled with pine wood, covered with turf and set on fire.
Small domestic tar kilns were found in Sweden in the early 2000s. These dated to between AD100 and 400. But much larger pits were found during road construction and dated to between 680 and 900, when the rise of the Vikings began.”
Funnel-shaped feature used for tar production in the Roman Iron Age (photograph courtesy of Upplandsmuseet) and a schematic reconstruction drawing (amended from Kurzweil & Todtenhaupt 1998).
Tar Trade
The pits were, up to now, thought to have been used for producing charcoal, but Hennius argues that, “These kilns are not associated with any inhabited settlements and were situated closer to forests of pine, which was their key ingredient.”
Vikings then sailed their tar enhanced longships on long distance raids. The research paper also noted that, “This development coincides with Scandinavian society’s intensified marine focus and the introduction of the sail.
This most probably drove the increase in tar production, which was used for protecting wood, impregnating and sealing sails, and as a trade product.”
Viking raiding and trading was not confined to precious objects , metals, stones… and tar. A New York Times article dissing the 2014 Vikings: Life and Legend , exhibition at the British Museum, said “A slave collar from Dublin and an ankle shackle from Mecklenburg in Germany remind us that Vikings were very active slave traders, capturing adults and children in raids, both to sell them or to keep as domestic servants and laborers.”
Reconstructed Viking longboat “Hugin”.
Driven to Explore and Exploit
What is more, the same article reports eyewitness accounts from Arab travelers that speak of “Vikings transporting slaves down the Russian rivers towards Islamic lands.
And DNA evidence from Iceland suggests that while the males are almost all of Scandinavian origin, there is a significant element of Irish and Scots DNA among the females, most of whom probably arrived as slaves.”
And earlier this year, The Independant published an article about the findings of scholar Birgitta Wallace , an award-winning specialist in Norse archaeology and Viking evidence in the West, who uncovered evidence of the “long lost Viking settlement that featured in sagas passed down over hundreds of year,” on the east coast of Canada.
If Wallace is proved correct, it would be the second Viking settlement to be discovered in North America.
What is special about Andreas Hennius’ ‘tar pit’ discovery is that it is the scaffolding which underpins all of these recent discoveries of Vikings in exotic lands; for the fact is clear, without tar the Vikings wouldn’t have left the coasts of Scandinavia.
4,000-Year-Old Hidden Tunnel Discovered in Ancient Castle in Turkey
In Turkey, Central Anatolia, a Hittite castle secret tunnel was excavated. The tunnel is about 4,000 years old and is part of the castle of Geval Castle. Nearly 150 meters of the tunnel were dug and investigated at this point; the rest is sealed off with a vault.
Geval Castle, where the Secret Tunnel of Hittite castle was found, is at the peak of Takkei Mountain, at 1,700 meters, some 7 kilometers west of the modern-day town of Konya, which is Turkey‘s 7th city in Turkey by population.
However, in ancient times, Konya had several civilizations, thanks to its strategic placement and a 360-degree view of the area around it.
Thanks to this, not only Hittites but also Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and the Ottoman Empire used Geval Castle as an important defensive structure.
The archaeological excavation in Geval Castle began in 2022 and has been supervised by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Seljuk, the University of Necmettin Erbakan and the General Directorate of the Konya Museum.
According to a prominent archeology site in Turkey, Arkeolo Jihaber, the team of excavators has managed to find numerous items from the Hittite era, including some ceramic pots and pans, several different metal objects and an assortment of different small hand goods. In 2022, archeologists unearthed a temple from this era and various rock-hewn cisterns.
The Hittite castle secret tunnel that the archeologists have found now dates back about four thousand years and was in all likelihood used extensively in the Seljuk era between the 11th and 12th century AD.
According to Çaycı, the team of archeologists will take a break from investigating the secret tunnel and the Geval Castle itself and will continue excavations in May next year.
This Hittite castle secret tunnel could be of great help to archeologists and historians in understanding the Hittites and their history a bit better.
The Hittites were an ancient people residing mostly in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, who founded an empire at Hattusa (north-central Anatolia) around 18BC.
The Hittite empire reached its peak in the 14th century BC under the rule of Suppoluliuma First and Mursili Second, when it covered the majority of Asia Minor and parts of Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant.
Thanks to their use of iron, the Hittites were able to launch several very successful military campaigns in nearby regions. However, iron wasn’t the only reason for their success on the battlefield.
The Hittites also used the light chariot. These were powered by two horses and were narrower and faster than what the other nations had at the time.
The Hittite empire reached its peak in the 14th century BC under the rule of Suppoluliuma First and Mursili Second, when it covered the majority of Asia Minor and parts of Upper Mesopotamia and the Levant.
At one point, a few years after the battle at Kadesh (1275 BC), the daughter of the Hittite king Hattusilis the Third married the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses Second.
Following this, civil wars and rivaling claims to the throne weakened the Hittite Empire, until it finally collapsed around 1160 BC into several independent “Neo-Hittite” city-states, none of which lasted longer than the 8th century BC. Most of these city-states were later integrated into the Assyrian empire.
Neo or Syro-Hittite city-states were generally divided into two groups: northern, with a Hittite ruler still in power; and southern, which were ruled by Arameans since around 1000 BC.
1,600-Year-Old Pottery Workshop Has First Known Rock-Hewn Kiln in Israel
During the construction of a new residential quarter, north of the new Yaʽarit neighborhood, a team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a Roman era pottery workshop, where jars were manufactured.
The kiln, used to fire the jars, is the only one known to date in the country to have been hewn entirely in bedrock.
“What makes the pottery works so special is its unique kiln, which was hewn in bedrock and is unlike most of the kilns known to us that were built of stone, earth and mud” said Joppe Gosker, head of the IAA excavations, in a press release.
Joppe Gosker, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, inside the pottery workshop’s water reservoir in Shlomi.
The 5 th century A.D. workshop included a system for storing water, storage compartments, a kiln, etc,
“The kiln was meticulously constructed. It consisted of two chambers – one a firebox in which branches were inserted for burning, and a second chamber where the pottery vessels were placed that were fired in the scorching heat that was generated” added Gosker.
Joppe Gosker, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the pottery workshop in Shlomi.
Stone kilns were used in ancient Palestine because of the abundance of bedrock. More recently in that land such kilns have been built on hillsides, the hill forming part of the rear wall.
The kilns have been constructed of rough stones without mortar, the spaces between the stones being filled with clay but with a large open flue at the top. After the interior was properly packed with crushed limestone, a hot fire made from brush would be started in the fireplace at the base of the kiln.
The strong draft entering through a tunnel in the bottom of the kiln would carry the flames up through the limestone, heating it until it was converted into lime. This process would normally continue for several days.
“We can explain the quarrying of this rare kiln right here because of the special geological conditions found in the area of Shlomi: here there is chalk bedrock, which on the one hand is soft and therefore easily quarried, and on the other is sufficiently strong to endure the intense heat”, said Anastasia Shapiro, a geologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority who is researching the production of pottery vessels.
From the ceramic debris that was piled up around the kiln the archaeologists surmised that two types of vessels were manufactured at the workshop: storage jars that could be transported overland, and jars with large handles ( amphorae) that were used to store wine or oil which were exported from Israel by sea.
Decorated amphoriform vessel made by the Iron Age inhabitants of what is modern-day Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Israel
Archaeological surveys performed in Shlomi have documented remains of a royal structure with a gate – probably from the Late Roman period, which coincides with the use of the pottery workshop.
In addition, remains of the walls of buildings were identified that probably date to the Byzantine period, and as in the case of the unique kiln their builders took advantage of the natural stone in order to hew high foundations in the bedrock.
Images of Jesus and Other Biblical Figures Found in a 1,000-Year-Old Bible Discovered in Turkey
The nearly thousand-year-old bible has been recently discovered by171 the Turkish Police when smugglers tried to sell the priceless book to undercover officers.
Police in the central Turkish city of Tokat seize the ancient Bible together with additional priceless artifacts after catching the smugglers red-handed.
The Turkish Police also confiscated a valuable collection of jewelry and 53 ancient coins as well as two parts of valuable rings and two arrowheads were also recovered from the crooks trying to gain a profit off of the immensely valuable artifacts.
“They steal everything that they can sell, and what they can’t sell, they destroy,” Qais Hussein Rasheed, Iraq’s deputy minister for antiquities and heritage, said earlier this year of the Islamic State’s looting practices.
The researcher lists a 1,000-year-old Bible, written in the old Assyrian language and illustrated with religious motifs made of gold leafs, in a video posted on October 28, 2015.
“We have noticed that the smuggling of antiquities has greatly increased since last June,”
The origins of the bible are still unknown. The Bible is reportedly damaged, but the writings in the old Assyrian language can be still noticed on the crumbled pages.
The cover is completely ruined, but the remaining fifty-one pages have images and religious motifs in gold leaf.
Discoveries of biblical artifacts have made news a number of times this past year, with a team of scholars claiming to have discovered the world’s earliest-known version of the Gospel back in January.
A team of researchers headed by Craig Evans, a professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia, said that they found a sheet of papyrus used to make an ancient mummy’s mask in Egypt which contains a written portion of the Gospel of Mark and dates back to as early as 80 A.D.
“Where did we find it? We dug underneath somebody’s face and there it was,” Evans said. ” It was from one of these masks that we recovered a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that is dated to the 80s. We could have a first-century fragment of Mark for the first time ever.”
Holy book The Bible, written in the old Assyriac language, is estimated to be around 1,000 years old and is illustrated with religious motifs made of gold leafs.
The oldest surviving copies of the Scripture had been dated to the second century, between the years 101 to 200 A.D.
In July this year, Israeli archeologists announced that they had found a rare inscription of the name of an apparently influential person from the time of King David, which is also mentioned in the Bible.
The researchers found a 3,000-year-old large ceramic jar with the inscription of the name “Eshbaal Ben Beda,” which is mentioned in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles in 8:33 and 9:39.
Archaeologists Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor expressed doubts, however, that the jar belonged to the same Eshbaal that is mentioned in the Bible.
Remains of a 2,100-year-old Gallo-Roman worship complex found in France
A large temple possibly used by Roman soldiers for hundreds of years has been unearthed by archaeologists in northwest France. Archaeologists in northwest France have unearthed what may have been a temple to the Roman war god Mars, dating to the first century B.C.
An artist’s depiction of the temple or cult sanctuary at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz as it would have looked in the first century A.D.
The temple, or sanctuary, is part of a Roman complex spread over more than 17 acres (7 hectares) that was discovered last year at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, Brittany, and was probably visited by Roman soldiers posted to the region.
“The size of the sanctuary indicates it was an important place for religion,” Françoise Labaune-Jean, one of the directors of the excavations and an archaeologist at the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), told Live Science.
La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz has been recognized for its wealth of archaeological remains since the 1970s, and it was first excavated in the 1990s, Labaune-Jean said. The latest excavations started in 2022.
The site is slightly elevated, with a commanding view of the Rennes basin. This viewpoint makes it “likely that religious ceremonies gathered here from Condate [the Roman city in the basin] and the surrounding area,” Labaune-Jean said in an email.
The sanctuary site near the city of Rennes in Brittany was slightly elevated and overlooked the entire region.
Roman war god
Archaeologists believe the site was dedicated to Mars after discovering a bronze statuette of the Roman war god in 2022, while iron weapons deposited in a ditch around the sanctuary also suggest that it was frequented by soldiers.
The discovery in 2022 of a bronze figurine of the Roman war god Mars indicates he was one of the deities worshipped at the sanctuary
But a large number of terracotta figurines, perhaps representing Venus and mother goddesses, were also found in a nearby pit.
“As is often the case with religious buildings of antiquity, it is difficult to know which deity they may have been dedicated to,” Labaune-Jean said, noting that no inscriptions or large statues have been found at the site. “When the study of the objects discovered there is more advanced, it will perhaps be possible to propose other complementary deities.”
These bronze handles for a bronze bowl are decorated with eagles, a symbol of Rome and the legions of the Roman army.
Julius Caesar conquered Brittany — called “Armorica” by the Romans — in 56 B.C.
The sanctuary at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz seems to date from close to that time and was used until the fifth century A.D., according to a statement from INRAP.
The archaeologists aren’t sure why the complex was abandoned, but it may be linked with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire at about that time.
Temple complex
The many coins found at the sanctuary site are a mixture of Roman and local Gallic money.
The temple complex expanded over time to include a small town with public baths and a cemetery containing about 40 tombs.
Some of the tombs held items made of silver, such as bracelets, pins and belt buckles, while another had a dagger and parts of a harness for horses. Hundreds of everyday artifacts have also been unearthed there, including furniture and pieces of pottery, glass and metal.
Labaune-Jean role is to quickly preserve and study artifacts unearthed during the excavations, which might otherwise deteriorate quickly when exposed to air or light. X-rays and computerized 3D imaging are also being used to document the discoveries, she said.
Eric Norde, an archaeologist with the Dutch archaeological agency RAAP, who is excavating(opens in new tab) a sanctuary used by Roman soldiers near Zevenaar, Netherlands, said he’s.cautious about assigning the sanctuary at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz to Mars alone.
That’s because the Zevenaar sanctuary shows that Roman temples were often associated with several deities. “When you look only at the sculptures and the weapons and military equipment, one would conclude only Hercules was venerated,” he told Live Science.
But careful research shows instead that several different gods were worshiped there. “It is quite dangerous to assign a deity to a sanctuary based only on the finds,” and not inscriptions or texts, he said.
This 1,000-Year-Old Stone Tablet May’ve Been a Maya Sports ‘Scoreboard’
An ancient stone “scoreboard” likely used in a soccer-like ball game was discovered at an archeological site in Mexico earlier this week, archaeologists said.
Found at the Maya Chichen Itza site, researchers and archeologists said the circular stone’s diameter was just over 32 centimeters (or just over 12 inches), and it weighed 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds), according to a statement from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History on Twitter.
The stone, which is believed to be a kind of scoreboard, dates from between 800 CE and 900 CE.
“In this Maya site, it is rare to find hieroglyphic writing, let alone a complete text,” said Francisco Perez, one of the archaeologists coordinating the investigation, according to Reuters.
The stone appears to show two figures in the center, with hieroglyphics surrounding the outer edge.
One is wearing a feather headdress, and the other – presumed to be his opponent – is adorned with a “snake turban,” reserved for high-ranking individuals in Maya society.
Experts are now in the process of analyzing and interpreting the stone and taking steps to prepare it for conservation.
Iconography experts identified the two figures on the stone as playing the ball game “pelota” – a team game played with a heavy rubber ball, according to the BBC.
Mesoamerican people played the ball game as a form of traditional practice, and it is thought to have had ritual connotations, per Reuters.
The Chichen Itza in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico is a historical center of the Maya civilization, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
