Category Archives: ASIA

Mysterious 4,000-year-old Grave Reveals A Man And Woman Buried Face To Face

Mysterious 4,000-year-old Grave Reveals A Man And Woman Buried Face To Face

In a cemetery dating back about 4000 years, in Kazakhstan, the bodies of a young man and woman were discovered buried face to face, probably in their twenties. You might be in a romantic connection they were a couple.

The bodies of a young man and woman inside the grave. The cemetery dates back approximately 4,000 years to the Bronze Age.

The bodies of a man and woman who died 4,000 years ago have been found buried face-to-face in a grave in Kazakhstan.

Archaeologists discovered the burial in an ancient cemetery that has remains of humans and horses, Kazakhstan archaeologists said in a Kazakh-language statement.

Some of the jewelry and bracelets that were found belonged to the young man and woman.

The man and woman were buried with a variety of grave goods that includes jewelry (some of which is gold), knives, ceramics, and beads. The remains of horses were also found near the burial.

While some media reports claim that the archaeologists also found the burial of a priestess nearby, the archaeologists made no mention of this in their statement.

While the statement says that the pair is “young” it doesn’t give an age range.

It’s not clear what killed the man and woman or their exact relationship with each other, including whether they were romantically involved.

The rich burial goods suggest that the man and woman came from wealthy families, archaeologists said in their statement.

Archaeological remains found at other sites in Kazakhstan suggest that the pair lived at a time when fighting and conflicts occurred frequently in the region, archaeologists also said.

Large ceramic pots were found in the burial.

Excavation of the cemetery and analysis of the remains is ongoing. The archaeological team is led by Igor Kukushkin, an archaeology professor at Saryarka Archaeological Institute at Karaganda State University in Kazakhstan. Live Science was unable to reach Kukushkin at the time this story was published.

Numerous archaeological remains have been uncovered in Kazakhstan. In 2016, a team led by Kukushkin found the remains of a 3,000-year-old, pyramid-shaped mausoleum.

In 2014, a different team of archaeologists identified 50 geoglyphs of various shapes and sizes, including a massive swastika, that appear to date as far back as 2,800 years.

5,000-year-old Bryde’s Whale Skeleton Discovered in Thailand

5,000-year-old Bryde’s Whale Skeleton Discovered in Thailand

An unusual, partly fossilized skeleton belonging to a Bryde whale, estimated to be about 5,000 years old, has been discovered by researchers in Thailand at an inland site west of Bangkok.

A skeleton weighing 12.5 meters (41ft), about the length of a truck, was discovered by a cyclist who saw some of the vertebrae coming out of the ground. Since then, a team of scientists has been excavating the site.

Scientists say the bones need to be carbon-dated to determine the exact age of the skeleton

“This whale skeleton is thought to be the only one in  Asia,” said Pannipa Saetian, a geologist in the Fossil Protection division of the Department of Mineral Resources.

“It’s very rare to find such a discovery in near-perfect condition,” said Pannipa, estimating that about 90 percent of the whale’s skeleton had been recovered.

“Then, we found the right shoulder and fin,” she said, noting that about 36 backbone pieces had been unearthed. The bones needed to be carbon-dated to determine the exact age of the skeleton, she said.

Once the painstaking process of cleaning and preserving the fragile skeleton is complete, it will be exhibited.

Scientists hope the skeleton will provide more information to aid research into Bryde’s whale populations existing today as well as the geological conditions at the time.

Bryde’s whales, sometimes known as tropical whales for their preference for warmer waters, are found in coastal waters in parts of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, including in the Gulf of Thailand.

Highly endangered, there are some 200 remaining whales in the South Pacific nation’s waters, and about 100,000 worldwide.

An archaeologist works at the excavation site at Samut Sakhon

In 2016, New Zealand researchers gained insight into a pair of Bryde’s whales feeding off an  Auckland coast in one of the first uses of drone technology to study the animals.

The footage revealed an adult and calf frolicking in the water and using a “lunge” feeding technique to feast on plankton and shoals of small fish.

In 2014, a 10.8-meter-long whale thought to be a Bryde’s whale, washed up at a remote beach in Hong Kong’s New Territories.

Conservationists said it could have died at sea before drifting to the inner bay off Hung Shek Mun, in Plover Cove Country Park.

‘Sleeping Beauty’ Mummy Discovered 2,000 Years After Death Wearing Skirt And Clutching Make-Up Box

‘Sleeping Beauty’ Mummy Discovered 2,000 Years After Death Wearing Skirt And Clutching Make-Up Box

Archeologists hail the extraordinary find of a suspected ‘Hun woman’ with a jet gemstone buckle on her beaded belt.

After a fall in the water level, the well-preserved mummy was found this week on the shore of a giant reservoir on the Yenisei River upstream of the vast Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, which powers the largest power plant in Russia and the 9th biggest hydroelectric plant in the world.

The ancient woman was buried wearing a silk skirt with a funeral meal – and she took a pouch of pine nuts with her to the afterlife.

The ancient woman was buried wearing a silk skirt with a funeral meal

In her birch bark make-up box, she had a Chinese mirror. Near her remains – accidentally mummified – was a Hun-style vase.

A team of archeologists from St Petersburg’s Institute of History of Material Culture (Russian Academy of Sciences) working on the shoreline in the Tyva Republic spotted a rectangle-shaped stone construction that looked like a burial.

‘The mummy was in quite a good condition, with soft tissues, skin, clothing and belongings intact,’ said a scientist.

Natalya Solovieva, the institute’s deputy director, said: ‘On the mummy are what we believe to be silk clothes, a beaded belt with a jet buckle, apparently with a pattern.

Archeologist Dr. Marina Kilunovskaya said: ‘During excavations, the mummy of a young woman was found on the shore of the reservoir.

‘The lower part of the body was especially well preserved …

‘This is not a classic mummy – in this case, the burial was tightly closed with a stone lid, enabling a process of natural mummification.’

She was buried around 1,900 to 2,000 years ago, scientists believe ahead of exhaustive tests.

Astonishingly, the remains were preserved even though they have been underwater for periods since the dam became operational between 1978-85.

Dr. Solovieva said: ‘Near the head was found a round wooden box covered with birch-bark in which lay a Chinese mirror in a felt case.’

Near the young woman were two vessels, one a Hun-type vase.

‘There was a funeral meal in the vessels, and on her chest a pouch with pine nuts.’

Restoration experts have started working on the mummy. Analysis of the find is expected to yield a wealth of information on her life and times.

Scientists received a grant from the Russian Geographical society to rescue the unique archeological finds in flooded areas.

According to an Expert A 2,700-year-old Inscription in Jerusalem Supports the Bible

According to an Expert A 2,700-year-old Inscription in Jerusalem Supports the Bible

The Siloam Tunnel, also known as Hezekiah’s Tunnel, is an ancient waterway carved under Jerusalem some 2,700 years ago.

The tunnel ran under the City of David, funneling freshwater into Jerusalem from Gihon Spring, outside of the city’s walls. Mention of the tunnel is found in the Old Testament’s 2 Kings 20, where the Bible says the tunnel was constructed on the order of King Hezekiah.

According to scripture, the tunnel was carved into Jerusalem’s bedrock to ensure a supply of water during an impending siege by invading Assyrian forces.

2 Kings 20:20 reads: “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”

Tom Meyer, a professor in Bible and theology at Shasta Bible College and Graduate School in California, believes the tunnel is an incredible testament to the Bible’s historicity.

Professor Meyer told Express.co.uk there is ample archaeological evidence that validates the account in 2 Kings 2020.

Archaeology news: An expert believes an inscription in Siloam Tunnel proves the Bible right

In particular, an ancient Hebrew inscription found inside the tunnel sheds light on its construction.

Archaeology news: Siloam Tunnel is also known as Hezekiah’s Tunnel

Professor Meyer said: “Though the American historical geographer, Edward Robinson, was the first person to explore the tunnel in modern times – 1873 – it was a local boy named Jacob Spafford – the adopted son of the famous hymnist Horatio Spafford – who, while playing in the tunnel, stumbled upon one of the most important ancient Hebrew inscriptions ever found – 1880.

“The inscription is significant not only because it validates the Biblical account, but because it is the only inscription from ancient Israel that commemorates a public works program and is one of the oldest examples of Hebrew writing.”

The inscription was brought to the attention of local authorities but was irreparably damaged during its removal.

Hezekiah’s tunnel demonstrates once again the historical reliability of the Biblical account

Professor Tom Meyer, Shasta Bible College

However, Professor Meyer said the inscription contained a description of workers tunneling under Jerusalem from two opposite ends.

When the two groups finally connected, they left an inscription on the wall to commemorate their achievement.

The connection to King Hezekiah would place the tunnel’s construction at around the seventh century BC.

Professor Meyer said: “This amazing feat is mentioned numerous times in the Bible in connection with Hezekiah’s fortification preparations against Sennacherib of Assyria attacking Jerusalem.

Archaeology news: Water is still carried into the Pool of Siloam from Gihon Spring

“The Siloam Inscription is stored at the Istanbul Archeology Museum because it was discovered when Israel was under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire.

“Hezekiah’s tunnel, which still brings water into Jerusalem to this day, was an incredible feat of engineering; along with the epigraphical evidence – the accompanying Siloam Inscription – Hezekiah’s tunnel demonstrates once again the historical reliability of the Biblical account.”

Mention of the tunnel is also found in 2 Chronicles 32:1-4: “After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.

“And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib has come and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,

“He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him.

“So there was gathered many people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?”

The tunnel is also mentioned in 2 Chronicles 32:30: “This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works

Another mention is found in Isaiah 22:11: “You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.

“But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago.”

Archaeologists Find Destruction Left by Babylonian Conquest of Jerusalem

Archaeologists Find Destruction Left by Babylonian Conquest of Jerusalem

A section of Jerusalem’s city wall built some 2,700 years ago and mostly destroyed by the Babylonian army in 586 BCE was uncovered by archaeologists in the City of David National Park, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced in july 2021.

The section of the wall that was exposed.

The massive structure – some 5 m. wide – was built on the steep eastern slope leading to the city, just a few dozen meters away from the Temple Mount.

Probably the steepness of the area preserved the structure from destruction during the Babylonian conquest – a vivid account of which is offered in the Bible – since the invading army likely accessed the city from an easier path.

“By the ninth day [of the fourth month] the famine had become acute in the city; there was no food left for the common people. Then [the wall of] the city was breached…. On the seventh day of the fifth month – that was the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon – Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

He burned the House of the Lord, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person,” reads the last chapter of the Book of Kings II.

For the archaeologist, uncovering the remains was very emotional, as related by Dr. Filip Vukosavovic of the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center, a codirector of the excavation with Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf on behalf of the IAA.

“When we exposed the first part of the wall, an area about 1 m. per 1 m. large, I immediately understood what we had found,” he said. “I almost cried.”

Indeed, the remains not only present an incredible testimony about centuries of life in Jerusalem and their tragic end but they also solved a decades-long archaeological mystery. During excavations in the area led by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s and by archaeologist Yigal Shiloh in the 1970s, remains of a massive wall were unearthed in two different spots of the slope.

However, since the two structures did not appear to be connected, most scholars did not believe that they were part of a city wall, whose presence was described in the Bible but still needed to be proven by archaeological evidence.

“Now we can say with certainty that the city wall did exist, at least on the eastern slope,” Vukosavovic said. Since the eastern slope represented the most difficult approach to access Jerusalem, it is safe to assume that also the rest of the city was surrounded by a wall, he added.

“The city wall protected Jerusalem from a number of attacks during the reign of the kings of Judah, until the arrival of the Babylonians who managed to break through it and conquer the city,” said Vukosavovic, Uziel and Chalaf.

While the newly uncovered section still has to be dated independently (“We are working on getting some radiocarbon dating,” Vukosavovic noted), the other two sections were built around the eighth century BCE, in a period also known as the First Temple period.

Behind the remains of the wall, the ruins of some houses are still visible. “In one, we found ashes that we believe date back to the Babylonian invasion,” said Vukosavovic.

In addition, the archaeologists uncovered multiple artifacts that offer a glimpse into the daily life of Jerusalem when the wall was still standing, and after its fall in 586 BCE: fragments of pots, pans and other vessels, seal impressions, some of them carrying inscriptions – for example, “lamelech” (to the king), which was usually featured on jars used for tax collection. A small Babylonian seal stamp made in stone was also found.

“Maybe it was dropped by one of the soldiers, or maybe it belonged to a Jerusalemite who liked Babylonian-style objects, or maybe it dates back to a later period and was owned by those who lived in the city after its destruction,” Vukosavovic remarked.

While the wall on the eastern slope remained standing – to the point that centuries later it would be used as a foundation for new buildings – Jerusalem was burned down, the Temple destroyed, and the Jews sent into exile.

Similarly, this happened again some 500 years later – when the city was again thriving – this time at the hands of the Romans. The second destruction took place on the ninth day of Av, on the same date as the first. 

125,000 years ago Massive elephants were hunted and killed by Neanderthals 

125,000 years ago Massive elephants were hunted and killed by Neanderthals 

A new analysis of 125,000-year-old bones from around 70 elephants has led to some intriguing new revelations about the Neanderthals of the time: that they could work together to deliberately bring down large prey, and that they gathered in larger groups than previously thought.

The bones belonged to straight-tusked elephants, a now extinct species that stood nearly 4 meters (just over 13 feet) tall at the shoulder.

Archaeologist Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser examines the femur of a large adult male straight-tusked elephant
The findings suggest Neanderthals made deep cut marks on the foot bones of straight-tusked elephants to access the rich deposits of fat in the animals’ foot pads.

That’s nearly twice the size of the African elephants that are alive today, and around 4 tons of meat would have been taken from each carcass.

The researchers estimate it would’ve taken a team of 25 people between 3–5 days to skin and then dry or smoke the elephant meat. It points to either a large group of Neanderthals being nearby, or that they had ways of preserving the colossal volume of meat.

In either case, these early humans start to seem more sophisticated than we’d imagined.

“This is really hard and time-consuming work,” Lutz Kindler, an archaeozoologist from the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center in Germany, told Science.

“Why would you slaughter the whole elephant if you’re going to waste half the portions?”

Evidence of charcoal fires around the archaeological site suggest that the meat would have been dried, which is one way of making it last for longer.

The haul would have been enough to feed 350 people for a week, or 100 people for a month, according to the researchers – that counters the conventional narrative of Neanderthals living in smaller groups of around 20.

The ages of the animals are telling too. These were almost all adult males – if the hominins were scavenging meat from dead elephants, children and females would be expected.

Here, it looks as though they deliberately targeted the larger males for the extra meat, perhaps by driving them into mud or trapping them in pits.

Almost every bone that was examined showed evidence of careful butchery. Marks left by other animals were few and far between, which hints that there wasn’t much meat or fat left on these bones by the time the Neanderthals had finished with them.

Archaeologist Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser examines the femur of a large adult male straight-tusked elephant

“It constitutes the earliest unambiguous evidence for the systematic targeting and processing of straight-tusked elephants, the largest Pleistocene terrestrial mammals that ever lived,” write the researchers in their published paper.

“This has important implications for our views of Neanderthal local group sizes, mobility, and cooperation.”

Around 3,400 elephant bones were studied in total, with researchers finding clear traces of cutting and scraping marks left by flint tools. It’s unusual to find direct evidence of cut marks like this, making it an important find.

The site that these bones were taken from sits near the town of Neumark-Nord in Germany, and was discovered by coal miners in the 1980s. It’s one of the richest sites we have for studying Neanderthal activities of the Last Interglacial (LIG) period, some 130,000–115,000 years ago.

Our hominin cousins are often portrayed as less intelligent or cultured than the human beings that eventually replaced them, but this study is the latest in a growing pile of evidence that there was more to Neanderthals than we might have thought.

“Neanderthals were not simple slaves of nature, original hippies living off the land,” archaeologist Wil Roebroeks, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, told the Associated Press.

“They were actually shaping their environment, by fire… and also by having a big impact on the biggest animals that were around in the world at that time.”

Exquisite jewellery from the past was discovered in a Chinese woman’s tomb.

Exquisite jewellery from the past was discovered in a Chinese woman’s tomb.

A 1,500-year-old tomb unearthed in China was found to contain spectacular golden jewelry inlaid with gemstones and amethysts and a 5,000 bead necklace.

A number of burials from the Northern Wei Dynasty, which this tomb belongs to, have yielded beautiful gold earrings, but experts have said the earrings discovered in this tomb are the most exquisite to have been found from this time period.

Live Science reports that the tomb was first discovered in 2011 but the finding has only recently been described in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics .

The burial was discovered in Datong City, Shanxi Province, by the Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology, who were assessing a site prior to a construction project.

Datong City was founded in 200BC and located near the Great Wall Pass to Inner Mongolia.

It flourished during the following period and became a resting place for camel caravans traveling from China to Mongolia.

In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the same era as the burial, Datong (then named Pincheng) became the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

This was also the period that the famous Yungang Grottoes were constructed.

An epitaph found in the tomb’s entrance revealed that the tomb belonged to a woman named Farong, who was the wife of a magistrate.

Farong Tomb

Her skeleton, which was not well preserved, was found in a coffin with her skull resting on a pillow of lime.

The gold earrings have ornate designs, inlaid gemstones, gold chains and amethysts. They contain images of dragons and a human face.

“The human figure has curly hair, deep-set eyes and a high nose; wears a pendant with a sequin-bead pattern on its neck; and has inverted lotus flowers carved under its shoulders,” wrote archaeologists in the journal article.

The necklace was made with around 5,000 beads, including 10 gold beads, 9 gold pieces, 2 crystals, 42 pearls, and over 4,800 glass beads.

The jewelry found in the 1,500-year-old tomb in Datong City. Credit: Chinese Cultural Relics

Interestingly, gold earrings with very similar designs have been found in northern Afghanistan, suggesting trade between the two cultures in ancient times.

Gold earrings have been recovered from numerous other Northern Wei Dynasty tombs, such as those pictured below, but archaeologists have said that the earrings found in this tomb are among the most beautiful ever found from this period.

Drought in Iraq Reveals 3,400-Year-Old City

Drought in Iraq Reveals 3,400-Year-Old City

Iraq is battling its worst drought in decades. Lack of rainfall and poor resource management has left communities that depend on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers devoid of the water they need to survive. So authorities drained part of the Mosul Dam reservoir in the country’s Kurdistan region this January to keep crops from drying out.

Archaeologists got brief access to the city during another drought in 2018, but this is the first time they managed a comprehensive site study.

As it turns out, the decision preserved more than crops. Out of that drained area, an ancient city emerged—and with just days to examine the area before the waters came back, archaeologists successfully mapped what they believe to have been a major city in the Mittani Empire (also spelled Mitanni Empire) built 3,400 years ago.

People in the area knew the city was there when the dam was created in the 1980s, but the buildings and artifacts that survived the city’s destruction in an earthquake around 1350 B.C.E. had never been fully investigated, Live Science’s Patrick Pester reports.

Parts of the city first arose from the depths during a major drought in 2018, as Smithsonian magazine’s Jason Daley reported at the time. During that brief time, researchers were able to explore a lost palace with massive, 22-foot-high walls, some six feet thick, and discovered “remains of wall paintings in vibrant shades of red and blue.” However, the archaeologists ultimately didn’t have enough time to sufficiently map the city before the waters returned.

So when drought struck again this year, a research team was assembled in a matter of days to hurry out to the site, according to a statement from the University of Tübingen. Researchers obtained short-notice funding through the University of Freiburg to examine as much as the city as possible before it was re-submerged.

The walls of the city were amazingly well-preserved.

Now, archaeologists have a clearer picture of what this ancient city might have been like, thanks to the team’s mapping of numerous large buildings and uncovering of hundreds of artifacts. Among the buildings found were an industrial complex, a fortification with a wall and towers, and a multi-story storage building.

“The huge magazine building is of particular importance because enormous quantities of goods must have been stored in it, probably brought from all over the region,” Ivana Puljiz, an assistant professor of archaeology from the University of Freiburg, says in the statement.

Hasan Ahmed Qasim, chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization and the expedition’s leader, adds that “The excavation results show that the site was an important center in the Mittani Empire.”

The team was impressed by how well many of the walls—sometimes reaching almost ten feet high—were preserved, despite being made of sun-dried mud and submerged for more than 40 years.

That’s likely due the earthquake that destroyed the city. It turned the upper parts of the walls into rubble, which buried and protected the lower parts of the city for centuries.

Also astonishingly well-preserved: five ceramic vessels containing over 100 cuneiform tablets, some still in their clay envelopes. In the statement, Peter Pfälzner, a professor of archaeology at the University of Tübingen, describes the underwater survival of unfired clay tablets as being “close to a miracle.” The team hopes the tablets, some of which could be letters, will shed more light on what the city and its daily life were like.

It’s possible the site could be the ancient city of Zakhiku, a major hub in the Mittani Empire, which lasted from roughly 1500 to 1350 B.C.E. One of a number of kingdoms and states founded by the Indo-Iranians in Mesopotamia and Syria, at its peak the empire spanned just over 600 miles, extending from the Zagros Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea.

In the empire’s early years, the Mittanis tussled with Egypt over control of Syria until a truce was reached with Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV around 1420 B.C.E. The Mittanis fell to the Hittite Empire around 1360 B.C.E., and the Assyrians soon took over the area.

Though the emergence of this underwater city is incredible, it’s not the only abandoned town to have been revealed from the depths by drought this year.

In February, the Spanish village of Aceredo—which was flooded to create the Alto Lindoso reservoir in 1992—was fully exposed during a drought, Gizmodo’s Molly Taft reports.

Though the tops of houses are sometimes visible when the reservoir’s water levels drop, full buildings had never been exposed before this winter, which was unnaturally dry due to climate change.

Before the waters came back, researchers covered the area with tarps and gravel for safekeeping.

Drought can also reveal other archaeological wonders. The 4,000- to 7,000-year-old megalithic monument known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal emerged in 2019 when drought hit a Spanish reservoir that had covered the stones for about 60 years, Smithsonian’s Meilan Solly reported at the time.

Iraq has been hit especially hard by global warming—temperatures there are rising twice as fast as the global average, according to PBS’ Simona Foltyn. Average annual rainfall is down by 10 percent, and as a result, historic wetlands have dried up, livestock are dying, and people are struggling to get fresh water.

For now, there’s still enough water that the Mosul reservoir refilled in February, ending the researchers’ investigation. To protect the city, the team covered the area in tarps overlaid with gravel fill before the waters fully re-flooded the area.

Drought is expected to continue to plague the region. That will be a disaster for locals—and could present other opportunities for archaeologists.

There’s likely plenty left to discover: As Qasim told the Art Newspaper’s Hadani Ditmars, “There are more than 100 underwater sites in the Eastern Tigris area” alone.

Scientists Uncover Nearly 100 Dinosaur Nests in Fossilized Hatchery

Scientists Uncover Nearly 100 Dinosaur Nests in Fossilized Hatchery

Paleontologists in central India have uncovered 92 preserved dinosaur nests and 256 eggs in an extensive fossilized hatchery. During the Late Cretaceous period, this breeding ground belonged to long-tailed, long-necked titanosaurs.

Five images display (A) an unhatched egg, (B) a circular outline of a possibly unhatched egg, (C) a compressed egg showing hatching window (arrow) and eggshells collected around the hatching window (circled), (D) an egg showing a curved outline, and (E) a deformed egg showing egg surfaces slipping past each other.

Combined with other sites previously found nearby, this trove of fossilized nests makes up one of the world’s largest known dinosaur hatcheries.

“Such nesting colonies would have been a sight to see back in the Cretaceous,” Darla Zelenitsky, a dinosaur paleobiologist at the University of Calgary in Canada who was not involved in the study, tells CNN’s Katie Hunt. “The landscape would have been dotted by a huge number of large dinosaur nests.”

Researchers studied these nests from 2017 to 2020 and published their findings Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, revealing insights into the dinosaurs’ reproductive habits.

Some 40 species of titanosaurs, a kind of herbivorous sauropod, are known to have lived, and several of them likely used this hatchery. The researchers found evidence of six species—or kinds of dinosaur eggs—at the site.

With so many nests in close proximity, it would have been hard for the massive reptiles to access the site to incubate eggs or feed hatchlings. Likely incapable of stepping delicately through the hatchery without crushing eggs underfoot, titanosaurs presumably were hands-off parents.

Instead, they might have incubated eggs by covering them, likely with sand, the researchers suggest. Laid and buried in shallow pits, titanosaur eggs may have been warmed by sunlight and the heat of the earth. After hatching, the young dinosaurs would have left the clutch quickly.

“It looks like sauropods laid their eggs and then left their offspring to fend for themselves,” Susannah Maidment, curator of dinosaurs at London’s Natural History Museum who was not involved in the study, tells the museum’s James Ashworth.

To that end, the paleontologists did not find any preserved dinosaur remains with the eggs and nests. No evidence of adults—or even hatchlings—was found in the area.

“It could be possible that this area was only for nesting and not for habitation purposes,” Guntupalli Prasad, a study co-author and paleontologist at the University of Delhi in India, tells Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz in an email. Alternatively, it’s possible “the bones could not get preserved, or are deeply buried or still unexposed and yet to be discovered.”

One find in particular stood out to the researchers: a rare egg-within-an-egg. This phenomenon, called “ovum-in-ovo,” is a known occurrence in birds. It happens when an egg that’s going to be laid gets pushed back into the body and becomes embedded within another egg, usually under stressful conditions like disease, a shortage of food or extreme temperatures. However, this kind of egg has never been identified in a dinosaur—or in any reptile.

This first-of-its-kind find, if confirmed, suggests that titanosaurs had a similar reproductive system to modern birds. They may have laid eggs sequentially, as birds do, rather than all at once in a clutch, like crocodiles. But the dinosaurs still shared some traits with crocodiles: They nested in marshy areas, and their eggs were randomly spaced.

The reproductive systems of titanosaurs, the researchers conclude, were likely more similar to birds and crocodiles than to any other modern-day reptiles.

Experts note that it’s difficult to tell whether these 92 nests were all active at the same time or just created in the same vicinity over the course of decades, centuries or millennia.

Regardless, the find is astonishing, Zelenitsky tells  Joshua A. Krisch in an email. “Frankly, it is surprising that discoveries of this magnitude are still being made.”

Archaeologists Unearth the ‘Golden Man’ of the Saka Burial Mound in Kazakhstan

Archaeologists Unearth the ‘Golden Man’ of the Saka Burial Mound in Kazakhstan

Last week, Ancient Origins reported on the fascinating discovery of a golden treasure left by the ancient Saka people in a burial mound in Kazakhstan.

It was called one of the most significant finds in helping archaeologists unravel the history of the ancient Scythian sub-group. Now, archaeologists have found the missing element of the Saka burial mound – a ‘golden man’.

According to Archaeology News Network , the mummy of a Saka man who died in the 8th-7th centuries BC was found in the Yeleke Sazy burial mound in the remote Tarbagatai Mountains of eastern Kazakhstan. He died when he was just 17 or 18 years old and it is estimated he was 165-170 centimeters (5.4-5.6 ft.) tall.

The ‘golden man’ found in the Saka burial mound.

There are plans underway to find out more about the man, as lead archaeologist Zeinolla Samashev, stated, “We will do facial reconstruction from the skull of this young man, extract DNA from the bones to find out the environment people lived in back then, to learn about their everyday life and habits”.

Kazakhstan’s ministry of information and communications explained why the human remains received its shining nickname, “When buried, the young man was dressed in gold, with all of his clothes being embroidered with gold beads.

The man was buried with a massive gold torc around his neck (suggesting his noble origin) and a dagger in a golden quiver beside him.”

The man’s remains were removed from the site for analysis.

That fits in well with the previous discovery of 3000 golden artifacts in the kurgan (burial mound). Archaeologists have unearthed plates, necklaces with precious stones, earrings, beautifully crafted figurines of animals, and golden beads which may have been used to embellish Saka clothing.

The find also corresponds with the belief that elite members of the culture were laid to rest in the Saka burial mound. As Yegor Kitov, an anthropologist at Moscow’s Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, said, “The finds and the size of the mound suggest that the young man buried inside had a high social status.”

Kitov also suggests “The body was mummified to allow time for those coming from far away to say farewell to the man,” further exemplifying the man’s social status in his time.

These gold beads would have been used to decorate his clothing.

The burial mound which held the man’s remains was created by members of the Saka culture. This was a Scythian nomadic group who spoke an Iranian language and lived on the Eurasian Steppe.

The Saka are best remembered as skilled horsemen and metalworkers. Danial Akhmentov, head of the East Kazakhstan regional administration, notes the craftsmanship of the Saka in the recently revealed treasures from the burial mound, “The finds indicate the high level of technological development in gold jewelry production in the 8th century B.C., which, in turn, suggests the high level of civilization at that time,” he said .

One of the gold figurines found in the treasure.

The Saka are known to have buried members of the elite in their kurgans, usually in pairs or as a family unit. That means that there may still be other skeletons inside the Yeleke Sazy burial mound.

There are still more plans to excavate in the area because estimates suggest that there may be 200 burial sites in varying states of conservation nearby. Unfortunately, it is believed that looting has been an issue in at least some of the kurgans.