Archaeologists discover mummies with solid-gold tongues in Egypt
Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered several ancient mummies with solid-gold tongues in their mouths.
The bizarre finding was made when preserved corpses were unearthed at the Quweisna necropolis in the central Nile Delta, about 40 miles north of Cairo, dating between 300 BCE and 640 BCE.
Experts investigating tombs at the site found several mummies with gold chips shaped like human tongues in their mouths, said Dr. Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Archeology, in a press release.
Experts believe the real tongues of the dead were cut out during the embalming process and replaced with a piece of gold resembling the organ so that the deceased could speak to Osiris, the ancient Egyptian “Lord of the Underworld.”
Gold chips shaped like human tongues were recovered at an ancient Egyptian cemetery at Quweisna near Cairo.
Experts believe the real tongues of the deceased were replaced with gold ones during the mummification process so the departed could speak to the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris.
A human skeletal is seen at the burial site that had been in use during three different historic periods.
According to Waziri, several mummies were discovered with gold on the bone directly beneath the linen wraps used during the mummification process.
The mummies were said to be in a poor state of preservation.
Also found at the ancient cemetery were golden chips fashioned into scarab beetles and lotus flowers, as well as funerary amulets, pottery, glues and tar used in the embalming process, the remains of wooden coffins in the human form and several copper nails.
The necropolis at Quweisna first was discovered in 1989, leading to several rounds of excavations over the past three decades.
Archaeologists also found gold chips shaped into scarab beetles and lotus flowers.
Funerary ornaments were recovered inside the tombs dating back between 300 BCE and 640 BCE.
Quweisna was first discovered in 1989, and experts recently unearthed an extension of the cemetery complex.
The golden-tongued mummies were found in a recently uncovered extension of the cemetery, which contained cadavers that were laid to rest during three different historic periods.
Each of the burial levels displayed evidence of different rituals and various ways of laying the mummies to rest, said Dr. Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Egyptian archeology sector at the Supreme Council of Archeology.
This is not the first time that mummies adorned with precious metals have been discovered in Egypt.
In 2022, a 2,00-year-old skull with a tongue of gold was discovered at the Taposiris Magna site near Alexandria.
In 2022, archeologists dug up a 2,000-year-old skull with a tongue-shaped gold chip in its gaping mouth at a site near the city of Alexandria known as Taposiris Magna, which means “great tomb of Osiris.”
A New geological study shows that the great sphinx of Giza is 800,000 Years old
One of the most mysterious and enigmatic monuments on the planet’s surface is undoubtedly the Great Sphinx at the Giza plateau in Egypt. It is an ancient construction that has baffled researchers ever since its discovery and until , no one has been able to accurately date the Sphinx, since there are no written records or mentions in the past about it.
Now, two Ukrainian researchers have proposed a new provocative theory where the two scientists propose that the Great Sphinx of Egypt is around 800,000 years old. A Revolutionary theory that is backed up by science.
The authors of this paper are scientists Manichev Vjacheslav I. (Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) and Alexander G. Parkhomenko (Institute of Geography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
The starting point of these two experts is the paradigm shift initiated by West and Schoch, a ‘debate’ intended to overcome the orthodox view of Egyptology referring to the possible remote origins of the Egyptian civilization and, on the other, physical evidence of water erosion present at the monuments of the Giza Plateau.
According to Manichev and Parkhomenko:
A strong argument was made by Ukrainian scientists in regards to the Sphinx, arguments based upon geological studies which support Schoch’s view regarding the Sphinx and its age.
The western wall of the Sphinx enclosure, showing erosion consistently along its length. Courtesy and copyright of Colin Reader.
Manichev and Parkhomenko focus on the deteriorated aspect of the body of the Sphinx, leaving aside the erosive features where the Sphinx is located, which had been studied previously by Schoch. Ukrainian scholars focused on the undulating terrain of the Sphinx which displays the mysterious pattern.
Mainstream scientists offer explanations for this sharp feature and state that it is based on the abrasive effect of the wind and sand, the undulations were formed because the harder layers of rock are better at withstanding the erosions while the softer layers would have been more affected, forming voids.
However, as noted by Manichev and Parkhomenko, this argument does not explain why the front of the Sphinx’s head lacks such features. In regards to the argument made by Schoch about the heavy rain period which occurred around 13,000 BC, the Ukrainian scientists recognized Schoch hypothesis partially suggesting that the erosive features of the Sphinx go further back than 13,000 BC.
Manichev and Parkhomenko argue are that the mountainous and coastal areas of the Caucasus and Crimea, which they know well, have a type of wind erosion that differs morphologically from the erosive features noted on the Sphinx. Essentially, they argue that such wind erosion has a very soft effect, regardless of the rocks’ geological composition.
“In our geological field expeditions in different mountains and littoral zones of the Crimea and Caucasus we could often observe the forms of Eolian weathering which morphology differs considerably from the weathering taking place on the GES. Most natural forms of weathering are of smoothed character, independent of the lithological composition of the rocks.”
They continue further and explain:
Manichev and Parkhomenko propose a new natural mechanism that may explain the undulations and mysterious features of the Sphinx. This mechanism is the impact of waves on the rocks of the coast. Basically, this could produce, in a period of thousands of years the formation of one or more layers of ripples, a fact that is clearly visible, for example, on the shores of the Black Sea. This process, which acts horizontally (that is when the waves hit the rock up to the surface), will produce a rock’s wear or dissolution.
The fact is that the observation of these cavities in the Great Sphinx made the Ukrainian scientists think that this great monument could have been affected by the above-said process in the context of immersion in large bodies of water, not the regular flooding of the Nile.
Manichev and Parkhomenko suggest that the geological composition of the body of the Sphinx is a sequence of layers composed of limestone with small interlayers of clays.
Manichev and Parkhomenko explain that these rocks possess a different degree of resistance to the water effect and say that if the formation of the hollow were due to sand abrasion only, the hollows had to correspond to the strata of a certain lithological composition. They suggest that the Great Sphinx hollows are formed in fact within several strata, or occupy some part of the stratum of homogeneous composition.
The Back of the Great Sphinx of Egypt
Manichev and Parkhomenko firmly believe that the Sphinx had to be submerged for a long time underwater and, to support this hypothesis, they point towards existing literature of geological studies of the Giza Plateau.
According to these studies at the end of the Pliocene geologic period (between 5.2 and 1.6 million years ago), seawater entered the Nile valley and gradually creating flooding in the area. This led to the formation of lacustrine deposits which are at the mark of 180 m above the present level of the Mediterranean Sea.
According to Manichev and Parkhomenko, the sea level during the Calabrian phase is the closest to the present mark with the highest GES hollow at its level. A high level of seawater also caused the Nile to overflow and created long-living water-bodies. As to time it corresponds to 800000 years.
What we have here is evidence that contradicts the conventional theory of deterioration caused by Sand and Water, a theory already criticized by West and Schoch, who recalled that during many centuries, the body of the Sphinx was buried by the sands of the desert, so Wind and Sand erosion would not have done any damage to the enigmatic Sphinx.
However, where Schoch clearly saw the action of streams of water caused by continuous rains, Ukrainian geologists see the effect of erosion caused by the direct contact of the waters of the lakes formed in the Pleistocene on the body Sphinx.
This means that the Great Sphinx of Egypt is one of the oldest monuments on Earth’s surface, pushing back drastically the origin of mankind and civilization.
Some might say that the theory proposed by Manichev and Parkhomenko is very extreme because it places the Great Sphinx in an era where there were no humans, according to currently accepted evolutionary patterns.
Furthermore, as it has been demonstrated, the two megalithic temples, located adjacent to the Great Sphinx were built by the same stone which means that the new dating of the Sphinx drags these monuments with the Sphinx back 800,000 years. In other words, this means that ancient civilizations inhabited our planet much longer than mainstream scientists are willing to accept.
Archaeologists discover a Perfectly Preserved 4,000-year-old tomb in Egypt
Archeological finds in Egypt never stop. This was made all the more apparent by the recent discovery in Saqqara of a vibrant tomb, home to some of the oldest pyramids in Egypt.
There are vivid wall paintings in the amazingly well-preserved tomb that look like they were made yesterday when in reality the tomb was created over 4,000 years ago.
To celebrate the discovery, Prof. Khaled al-Enani—Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities—recently led over 50 foreign dignitaries on a tour through the site.
Mohamed Mujahid, head of the Egyptian mission which discovered the tomb of the ancient Egyptian nobleman “Khewi”, takes a selfie. The tomb at the Saqqara necropolis dates back to the 5th dynasty
It’s believed that the tomb, which is located within a large necropolis, was created during the Fifth Dynasty.
This period spanned the early 25th century BCE until the mid 24th century BCE and was known as a time when funerary prayers began to be inscribed on royal tombs. In this particular case, the exceptional tomb was created for a dignitary named Khuwy.
Several aspects of the tomb lead researchers to believe that Khuwy was a man of great importance. Architecturally, it has a tunneled entrance, which is a feature typically reserved for pyramids—the tombs of the pharaohs.
Artistically, the colors of the paintings are considered “royal colors” by officials. These clues bring into question Khuwy’s influence and his relationship with the Fifth Dynasty’s longest-ruling pharaoh, Djedkare Isesi.
Step Pyramid at Saqqara
Djedkare’s pyramid is located nearby in Saqqara and one theory is that Khuwy was a relative of the leader.
Others believe that the lavishness of the tomb was instead owed to the Djedkare’s reforms on funerary cults. Whatever the cause, what we’re left with are incredible examples of the artistry of ancient Egypt.
In addition to the tomb decoration, archaeologists also found Khuwy’s mummy and canopic jars—used to hold organs—scattered in several fragments.
Egyptologists hope that the newly discovered tomb will give them more insight into Djedkare’s reign, as the pharaoh’s own tomb was raided prior to excavation in the 1940s.
While Djedkare appeared to be held in high regard even after his death—he was the object of a cult until at least the end of the Old Kingdom—he is still a somewhat enigmatic leader.
The 2-billion-year-old nuclear reactors in Africa baffle researchers!
Reactions similar to those inside the power plants in modern era arose spontaneously around 2 billion years ago in the Oklo region of Gabon, Africa.
n 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi and a team of workers built what they thought was the first nuclear reactor in a Chicago racket ball court. Unfortunately, nature had beaten them to the punch — by eons.
Truth be told, self-sustaining nuclear power reactor was invented in Africa, 2 billion years ago! It’s a 100-kilowatt nuclear plant that produced pulses of power every three hours for a period of about 150,000 years.
The discovery of the prehistoric Oklo nuclear plant
On AUGUST , 1972, a French nuclear fuel reprocessing plant discovered that 200 kg of uranium from a uranium mine in the Oklo region of Gabon Republic had been refined. Fearing that someone (or a secret organization) would build a nuclear bomb, the French Atomic Energy Commission immediately opened an investigation.
Finally, researchers and scientists from all over the world, after conducting detailed investigation, came to the conclusion that, six large nuclear reactors as old as 2 billion years old are located near Gabon’s uranium mine, and has been active for at least 150,000 years!
The advanced process self-sustaining fission
The ancient nuclear reactors use surface water and groundwater to modulate and reflect sequenced fission neutrons, its operation is much more advanced than that of modern nuclear reactors. Moreover, scientists found geological evidence that uranium in lens-shaped veins of uranium ore had undergone self-sustaining fission chain reactions, generating intense heat.
In this process, subatomic neutrons released by radioactive decay of uranium atoms induce decay of other uranium atoms, leading to a cascade of nuclear fission and substantial release of energy as heat. This is what modern nuclear reactors use to produce power.
The puzzle, however, is why the Oklo reactors didn’t plunge straight into a runaway chain reaction, leading to meltdown of the veins or even to an explosion. In nuclear plants the reaction is kept under control by using ‘moderators’.
These are substances that either slow down the chain reaction by absorbing some of the fission neutrons or encourage it by adjusting the neutron energies.
It needs the pure natural water
Former head of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and Nobel laureate Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg points out: For uranium to continue to “burn”, all conditions must be completely free of bias.
The water involved in the nuclear reaction must be very pure, a few parts per million of pollutants will create a “toxic” reaction that causes the reactor to stop working. Nowhere in the world is there such pure natural water.
In August 2022, two rock samples recovered during drilling campaigns in Oklo were donated to the Vienna Natural History Museum. The donation (and ceremony) was made possible with funding from nuclear fuel company Orano and France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The French Permanent Mission to the UN in Vienna supported the effort.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which helped monitor radioactivity levels and handling of those samples, the two samples emit a radiation of about 40 microsieverts per hour “if you stand 5 centimetres away from them, which roughly compares to the amount of cosmic radiation a passenger would receive on an eight-hour flight from Vienna to New York.”
The incredible hypotheses
The Oklo nuclear reactor in Gabon has been operating for 1500,00 years. How to produce water of such high purity has become another unsolved mystery. The rationality of the structural design of prehistoric nuclear reactors is absolutely baffling to experts.
Some scientists and theorists believe that the reactor is extremely advanced, suggesting that highly intelligent beings existed 2 billion years ago. While another hypothesis is that it was constructed by prehistoric human civilization (like described in the Silurian Hypothesis by NASA scientists) using techniques that were lost to subsequent humans.
However, most of the mainstream researchers believe that Oklo is the world’s only identified naturally occurring reactor which was created by accident. As scientists Norman Schwers and John A. Miller from Sandia National Laboratories explain in a 2021 paper, the concept of a naturally occurring reactor was originally documented in 1956 using reactor theory or the infinite multiplication constants.
Archaeologists find 4,500-year-old double tomb in ‘discovery whole world is watching’
Archaeologists have discovered a double tomb dating back to the time of the Pharaohs at the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities has announced.
Khaled Anany said the archaeological mission removed 450 cubic metres of sands to uncover the 4,500-year-old tombs amid the ancient cemetery containing well-preserved burial shafts.
Beneath the sands near the pyramids on the outskirts of capital Cairo, a striking Old Kingdom burial site was revealed to contain the remains of a priest and a noble, along with a fine limestone statute.
Egypt reports the excavation mission in the south-eastern part of the pyramids plateau began in August 2022.
Egyptian media were told the newly discovered tombs date back to the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, when Pharaohs still ruled the ancient lands in the period between the early 25th and mid-24th century BC.
The General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri told a press conference the dig uncovered tombs containing two closed coffins, known as sarcophagi, as well as archaeological relics belonging to priests.
World-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass reportedly told the press conference the coffins contained the remains of a priest to King Khafra, and and a noble named Khuwy.
An Egyptian archaeologist works at the newly discovered burial site dating back to circa
The officials told media the tomb had been reused during the 26th dynasty, the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (664-332 BC) before the Persian conquest.
An Egyptian archaeologist works on a sarcophagus at the newly-uncovered site
Sarcophagi are seen inside a burial shaft at the Giza pyramid plateau
The mission uncovered the ancient burial site while researchers were documenting a collection of pyramids that belonged to King Djedkare Isesi, who was the Fifth Dynasty’s eighth and final ruler.
In the burial site, archaeologists reportedly found an L-shaped offering room decorated with partially reserved reliefs.
The white limestone in the ancient cemetery had been reused to construct other buildings, leaving only the bottom part of the decoration preserved to be uncovered thousands of years later.
The two sarcophagi uncovered at the Tomb of Behnui-Ka and Nwi
Another room used as a burial chamber was also reportedly uncovered and was found to contain a completely destroyed coffin.
The latest Egyptian dig also uncovered fascinating relics of the Ancients’ burial processes.
Local reports say the archaeologist found oils and and resin remnants used by Ancient Egyptians during the embalming process among the two sets of human remains.
Archaeologifts shifted huge swathes of sands to get to the ancient tomb site
The Tomb of Behnui-Ka and Nwi, was uncovered near Egypt’s Great Pyramids
Egypt been promoting its series of archaeological finds lately in hopes of boosting tourism interest in the country.
Travel to the region has suffered a slump due to unrest in the wake of Egypt’s 2022 revolution.
4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Is The Oldest Magmatic Rock Ever Found
A lonely meteorite that landed in the Sahara Desert in 2022 is older than Earth. The primeval space rock is about 4.6 billion years old, and is the oldest known example of magma from space.
The EC 002 meteorite is “relatively coarse grained, tan and beige,” with crystals that are green, yellow-green and yellow-brown
Its age and mineral content hint that the rock originated in our early solar system from the crust of a protoplanet — a large, rocky body in the process of developing into a planet, according to a new study.
The meteorite, called Erg Chech 002 (EC 002), is likely a rare surviving chunk of a lost baby planet that was destroyed or absorbed by bigger rocky planets during our solar system’s formation.
Pieces of EC 002 were found in Adrar, Algeria, in 2022, and the fragments were “relatively coarse grained, tan and beige,” sporadically studded with crystals that were “larger green, yellow-green and less commonly yellow-brown,” according to a description by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).
EC 002 is an achondrite, a type of meteorite that comes from a parent body with a distinct crust and core, and lacks round mineral grains called chondrules, according to the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University.
Approximately 3,100 known meteorites originated in crust and mantle layers of rocky asteroids, but they reveal little about protoplanet diversity when our solar system was young. About 95% come from just two parent bodies, and around 75% of those originated from one source — possibly the asteroid 4 Vesta, one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, the researchers reported.
A meteoritic rarity
Among the thousands of rocky meteorites, EC 002 stood out. Radioactive versions, or isotopes, of aluminum and magnesium indicated that the meteorite’s parent was an ancient body dating to 4.566 billion years ago, and EC 002’s chemical composition revealed that it emerged from a partly-melted magma reservoir in the parent body’s crust.
Most rocky meteorites come from sources with basaltic crusts — rapidly cooled lava that is rich in iron and magnesium(opens in new tab) — but EC 002’s composition showed that its parent’s crust was made of andesite, which is rich in silica.
“This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock analyzed to date and sheds light on the formation of the primordial crusts that covered the oldest protoplanets,” the study authors reported.
While EC 002 is highly unusual, other studies have found that such silica-infused andesite crusts were likely common during our solar system’s protoplanet-forming stage, “contrary to what the meteorite record suggests,” the researchers wrote.
“It is reasonable to assume that many similar chondritic bodies accreted at the same time and were capped by the same type of primordial crust,” the study authors said.
Yet, when the scientists peered at distant cosmic objects’ spectral “fingerprints” — wavelength patterns in the light they emit or reflect — and compared them to EC 002, they found no matches. Even after comparison with 10,000 objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database, EC 002 was “clearly distinguishable from all asteroid groups,” the scientists reported.
“No object with spectral characteristics similar to EC 002 has been identified to date.”
Where are all the protoplanets with andesite crusts today? During our solar system’s volatile period of planetary birth, most of these protoplanets likely didn’t make it past infancy, according to the study.
Either they were smashed to bits in collisions with other rocky bodies, or they were absorbed by bigger and more successful rocky planets, such as Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury, leaving few traces behind to spawn meteorites such as EC 002.
“Remains of primordial andesitic crust are therefore not only rare in the meteorite record, but they are also rare today in the asteroid belt,” the scientists wrote.
A 3.8-million-year-old skull reveals the face of Lucy’s possible ancestors
The cranium of a male Australopithecus anamensis, a close relative of Lucy, provides clues about one of the earliest hominins to walk on two legs
The remarkably complete skull of a human ancestor of the genus Australopithecus fills in some of the gaps in the human evolutionary tree.
Spotting the intact Australopithecus skull in the Ethiopian dirt caused paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie to literally jump for joy. “It was something that I’ve never seen before, and I’ve seen a lot of cranial fossils,” he says.
The chance discovery by Haile-Selassie and an Ethiopian shepherd has created a captivating portrait of 3.8-million-year-old face, providing an unprecedented look at a hominin species from a key stage of human evolution. Experts say the extraordinary fossil can help redefine the branches of humans’ evolutionary tree during a time when our ancestors had just evolved efficient ways to walk upright.
“This cranium looks set to become another celebrated icon of human evolution,” Fred Spoor, a human evolution researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, writes in a News & Views article that accompanied Haile-Selassie and colleagues’ new study in the journal Nature.
The amazingly complete skull surfaced at Woranso-Mille, in Ethiopia’s Afar region, back in 2022. But it has taken 3 and a half years of hard work to answer the first question that arose—just what kind of skull is it?
Composite image of human hands holding “MRD” by Jennifer Taylor.
Haile-Selassie and colleagues compared the skull (dubbed MRD after part of its collection ID number) with a wide variety of hominin fossils from across Africa. They sized up different morphological features to see what species the cranium represents and where it fits in the interconnected lineages of our family tree. The results identify the skull as belonging to a male Australopithecus anamensis. The hominin species is theorized to have vanished a bit earlier than 3.8 million years ago after giving rise to a later lineage, Australopithecus afarensis, to which the famed fossil Lucy belongs. A. anamensis has traits of both apes (climbing arms and wrists) and humans (changes in the ankles and knee joints to facilitate walking on two feet).
Most previous fossil specimens of A. anamensis are limited to small bits of bone, such as a tooth, partial jaw, or fragment of arm or shin. The opportunity to study a nearly complete braincase and face confirms the “southern ape” as a unique species and shines light on the differences between two of our most ancient hominin ancestors, A. anamensis and A. afarensis.
“Most of A. anamensis’ own traits are quite primitive,” Haile-Selassie says, noting the individual’s small brain, protruding face and large canine teeth. “There are a few features exclusively shared with A. afarensis, like the orbital region in the frontal area. But everything else is really primitive. If you look at it from the back, it looks like an ape. This is something that I never expected to see in a species that is hypothesized to be the ancestor of A. afarensis. So it changed the whole gamut of ideas in terms of the relationship between those two.”
The skull also casts doubt on prevailing ideas that the older lineage directly gave rise to the younger, instead suggesting that the two lived together, coexisting for at least 100,000 years. But the study authors stress that it’s still quite possible that early populations of A. anamensis gave rise to A. afarensis perhaps 4 million years ago—they just didn’t die out immediately afterwards.
“Probably a small population of A. anamensis isolated itself from the main population, underwent major changes, and over time distinguished itself from the parent species of A. anamensis. That’s probably how A. afarensis appeared,” Haile-Selassie says.
A reconstruction of the facial morphology of the 3.8 million-year-old ‘MRD’ specimen of Australopithecus anamensis
The research team argues that the relationship between the two ancient hominin species, believed to be ancestors to our own genus Homo, may be a prime example of a nonlinear evolutionary scenario common in other non-human species. Anagenesis, when one species evolves so completely into another species that the progenitor disappears, is not the primary way the branches on our family tree diverged.
“Just because one species gave rise to another, it doesn’t mean that the source species (ancestor) disappeared,” Rick Potts, head of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program who was not involved in the new study, says via email from a dig in Kenya. “We’ve known for some time that the human family tree is branching and diverse, like the evolutionary trees of almost all other species. The new cranium is significant because it illustrates this pattern of biodiversity in a poorly known period of hominin evolution, just as our ancestors evolved a stronger and stronger commitment to walking on two legs.”
Paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey and colleagues reported in 1995 that A. anamensis was the first known species to evolve an expanded knee joint that allowed each of its legs to briefly bear all of its body weight during bipedal walking. Bipedalism set our ancestors apart from the apes, enabling ancient hominins to take advantage of a wider range of habitats than those available to tree climbers.
A second, related study helped to more precisely date the cranium fossil by investigating minerals and volcanic layers where it was found. The work also helped describe the long-vanished world in which A. anamensis and his kin lived.
The 3.8 million-year-old cranium of the ‘MRD’ specimen of Australopithecus anamensis.
The skull was buried in sand that was deposited in a river delta on the shores of an ancient lake. The sediment deposits also held botanical remains, revealing that the environment around the ancient lake was predominantly dry shrubland, but there was a mixture of other local ecosystems as well.
“There were forests around the shores of the lake and along the river that flowed into it, but the surrounding area was dry with few trees,” Beverly Saylor, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University and lead author of the second study, said at a press conference. The evidence suggests that, like contemporaries from other sites, the male hominin likely dined on a tough, ape-like diet of seeds, grasses and similar fare.
Haile-Selassie and colleagues have been working in the area of Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia, for 15 years. When a local shepherd showed up in camp to announce the find of some intriguing fossils, Haile-Selassie was skeptical, especially because locals had often dragged him to visit supposed fossil sites simply because they needed a ride somewhere. He asked Habib Wogris, the local chief who organizes fieldwork in the region each year, to take an hour-long walk with the shepherd to visit the site of his find.
“The chief has seen a lot of teeth of hominins from the site and he realized that this tooth looked like a hominin tooth,” Haile-Selassie says. “As soon as he returned and opened his hand and I saw the tooth, I said, ‘Where did you find it?’ They said, ‘let’s go and we’ll show you.’”
The fossil site was in the region’s high ground, where the shepherd had moved his flock to escape seasonal flooding in lower areas. “He’s been living there like three months with his goats, and he saw the fossil when he was digging a hole for his newborn goats to make a protection for them from jackals and hyenas,” Haile-Selassie says.
Yohannes Haile-Selassiewith “MRD” cranium.
On site, the shepherd showed him where the tooth had been lying, and Haile-Selassie surveyed the surroundings looking for other fragments.
“Three meters from where I was standing there was this round thing, just like a rock, and I said oh my goodness,” Haile-Selassie’s recalls. His reaction, literally jumping up and down with excitement, made the shepherd remark that the doctor had gone crazy. “I speak their language, and I said no the doctor is not going crazy. He’s just excited,” Haile-Selassie laughs.
With the rare fossil’s formal unveiling today, the excitement of the initial find three years ago has spread throughout the community of scientists looking to put a human, or hominin, face on our distant ancestors.
118-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur, Mammal Tracks Discovered in Diamond Mine in Angola
An international team of paleontologists headed by Marco Marzola from the New University of Lisbon, Portugal, has discovered nearly 70 fossilized tracks of dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals and crocodiles in the large diamond mine Catoca in northeast Angola.
Mammal and dinosaur trackways. Image credit: Octávio Mateus.
All the tracks were found in a small sedimentary basin that formed in the crater of a kimberlite pipe, dated at about 118 million years ago (Early Cretaceous).
The most important of these finds are those whose morphology is attributable to a large mammalian trackmaker, the size of a modern raccoon. There is no evidence from bones or teeth of such a large Early Cretaceous mammal from Africa or elsewhere in the world.
Track of a raccoon-sized animal. Scale bar – 1 cm. Image credit: Octávio Mateus.
“The track sizes, proportions, digit lengths and divarications are similar to the Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic ichnogenus Ameghinichnus; however, the average length of 2.7 cm and width of 3.2 cm suggest the track-maker was as big as a modern raccoon,” Marco Marzola and his colleagues reported in a presentation at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
“Exceptionally large for its time, it is comparable in size to Repenomamus, the largest known Cretaceous mammal body-fossil, with a total length up to 68 cm.”
“The tracks are much too large to have been produced by Early Cretaceous Abelodon from Cameroon, or the gondwanathere reported from Tanzania.”
Archaeologists Discover 20 Sealed Ancient Egyptian Coffins
Archaeologists have unearthed 20 intact ancient coffins near the Egyptian city of Luxor, the country’s antiquities ministry announced this week in a statement lauding the find as “one of the largest and most important” in recent years.
According to CNN’s Oscar Holland and Taylor Barnes, researchers discovered the coffins in Al-Assasif, a necropolis on the Nile River’s West Bank. Once part of the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, the site stands in what is now Luxor.
As Lateshia Beachum reports for the Washington Post, the coffins—decorated in shades of red, green, white and black—were found stacked in two layers in a giant tomb. The wooden sarcophagi are particularly impressive due to their colorful, well-preserved paintings and inscriptions, as well as the fact that they are still sealed—a rarity in Egyptian archaeology.
Although the antiquities ministry did not specify what time period the sarcophagi date to, BBC News notes that the majority of tombs in the necropolis hold the remains of nobles and government officials buried during Egypt’s Late Period, which lasted from 664 to 332 B.C.
There are, however, some exceptions to this trend: namely, tombs dating to the earlier 18th dynasty. Spanning the period of 1543 to 1292 B.C., this royal line included such pharaohs as Ahmenhotep I, Tutankhamun, and Hatshepsut, the so-called “queen who would be king.”
For now, information on the find remains scarce, but as a ministry statement notes, more details will be shared at a press conference this .
The cache of coffins isn’t the only recent find to come out of Luxor. Last week, archaeologists announced the discovery of an ancient “industrial” zone in the Valley of the Monkeys, a sprawling site neighboring the famed Valley of the Kings.
According to a government statement, the team unearthed 30 workshops, many featuring pottery dating to the 18th dynasty. Each shop had a different purpose—for example, producing pottery or gold artifacts—but all were assigned to the general task of creating funerary goods for Egyptian nobles and wealthy individuals.
In addition to these workshops, the researchers found an in-ground water tank that likely held workers’ drinking water, a scarab ring, hundreds of inlay beads and gold foil used to decorate royal coffins.
“This is unprecedented,” archaeologist Zahi Hawass tells CNN’s Julie Zaugg and Nourhan Moustafa. “Up until now, everything we knew about the [Luxor region] came from the tombs themselves, but this new discovery will allow us to shed a light on the tools and techniques used to produce the royal coffins and the furniture placed in the tombs.”
The ministry also announced the discovery of a grave in the East Valley, or as it’s more commonly known, the Valley of the Kings. Per Ahram Online’s Nevine El-Aref, the tomb, called KV 65, boasts tools used during its construction.
Egypt is currently conducting the largest excavation of the valley since 1922, when Howard Carter stumbled upon Tutankhamun’s incredibly well-preserved tomb.
Archaeologists are hoping to find still-undiscovered royal crypts, including the final resting places of Queen Nefertiti, Tut’s widow Ankhsenamun, Amenhotep I, Thutmose II and Ramses VIII.
Mysteries Of ancient Egypt: The Unfinished Obelisk Of Aswan
Abandoned thousands of years ago in the quarries of northern Aswan, ancient Egypt, the Unfinished Obelisk is a mass of granite 40 meters long (138 feet) and more than 1,090 tons (1,200 short tons) that makes up one of the most important mysteries of the archaeological world.
Historical origin
The creation of the obelisk was ordered by Hatshepsut (1508–1458 BC), the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The history of its origin is uncertain, but it is believed that the obelisk started to be built, possibly, to complement what would later be known as the Lateran Obelisk – originally built in Karnak and later sent to the Lateran Palace in Rome.
One of the biggest factors that puzzle scholars is the fact that the unfinished obelisk is a third larger than other ancient Egyptian obelisks erected throughout history.
It is estimated that it could measure more than 40 meters (138 feet) and weigh around 1,090 tons (1,200 short tons), if completed – to better understand, imagine the weight of 200 African elephants.
It is believed that the creators of the obelisk started to excavate it directly from a rock, but during the process, they noticed cracks under the granite.
This fact would have been the main reason that led them to abandon the project, however, the lower side of the obelisk remains, even today, fixed to the rock.
Important discoveries
Although this project has not been completed, from an archaeological and historical point of view, this obelisk is important for understanding the ancient Egyptian techniques used in stone work.
During the investigations, researchers discovered marks of the workers’ tools, which even after hundreds of years, remain preserved. In addition, they found lines of ocher colors marking the location of the workers.
Another surprising discovery was made in 2022 in the Aswan quarries. At the time, the researchers found an unfinished and partially worked obelisk base.
In addition, they found sculptures made of stones that may be linked to the place of origin from which other obelisks were created.
Currently, all of these discoveries are on display in an open-air museum, managed by the Egyptian government, being considered an archaeological and heritage site.
A sea of unknowns
Obelisks created by the ancient Egyptians are a great topic of debate because they raise numerous questions that we are still unable to answer to this day.
How did they carve them into a single block? How were they transported hundreds of miles away? How did they lift the huge, heavy columns?
There are numerous theories that indicate that the obelisks were transported by boats on the Nile River, although it is difficult to explain how the granite masses moved to the boats, or how the boats supported such a weight.
Carving the monuments directly into the bedrock was a common technique, and masons used stone balls to remove any imperfections until the surface was smooth.
There are still samples of these Dolerite balls in Aswan that were harder than granite and did not crack or break after repeatedly hitting the surface of the granite.
“It would have been the largest piece of stone worked by man to date”
The unfinished obelisk of Aswan, before the sand was removed, 1904
