Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Archaeologists Have Found a 3,000-Year-Old Bakery in Armenia, After Realizing a Layer of Ash Was Actually Wheat Flour

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Archaeologists Have Found a 3,000-Year-Old Bakery in Armenia, After Realizing a Layer of Ash Was Actually Wheat Flour

Last fall, when researchers unearthed the remains of a 3,000-year-old structure in the western Armenian town of Metsamor, they faced two mysteries: First, they didn’t know what purpose the structure had served. Beyond that, a strange powdery substance covering the area left them stumped.

“We knew it was something organic and collected about four to five sacks worth of the material,” Krzysztof Jakubiak, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw who led the excavation, tells  Jennifer Nalewicki.

The team assumed, at first, the material was simply ash. After all, charred remnants of the building’s reed roof and wooden beams indicated it had met its end in a fire. 

But upon closer examination, the substance was “decoded and recognized as remains of wheat flour,” says Jakubiak to Artnet’s Vittoria Benzine. “The samples were examined by an archaeobotanist expert, who confirmed this preliminary supposition.”

These findings solved both of the team’s mysteries at once. The powder wasn’t ash, but wheat flour. They had unearthed an ancient bakery.

Archaeologists originally mistook the flour residue in the building for ash.

Archaeologists estimate that the structure could have once held as much as 3.5 tons of flour, making it a site for mass production. They also found that furnaces were likely added after the building’s construction, indicating that the structure may have once served another purpose. Before becoming a bakery, perhaps it was “used for ceremonies or meetings, and then was turned into storage,” says Jakubiak.

The bakery’s flour is now far past its prime. Still, the discovery remains important; the building is one of the oldest known structures of its kind from the southern Caucasus and eastern Anatolia, per Szymon Zdziebłowski of Science in Poland. 

The building appears to have operated between the late 11th and early 9th century B.C.E. as part of the fortified settlement established at Metsamor in the 4th millennium B.C.E.

An aerial view of Metsamor, where the bakery was excavated

Little is known about the settlement, which covered 247 acres before being conquered in the eighth century B.C.E. by Argishti I, since its ancient inhabitants did not have a written language, according to Science in Poland.

However, archaeologists continue to learn more about Metsamor through new discoveries, including a recently unearthed tomb filled with gold pendants.

Jakubiak  that his team plans to continue to examine the bakery, which is remarkably well-preserved, in order to gain more insight into Metsamor’s history.

“Because the structure’s roof collapsed during a fire, it shielded everything, and luckily, the flour survived,” he adds. “It’s astounding; under normal circumstances, everything should be burned and gone entirely.”

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

10,500-year-old Bones Found in Bog are Germany’s Oldest Human Remains

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10,500-year-old Bones Found in Bog are Germany’s Oldest Human Remains

Archaeologists digging at a Stone Age campsite in northern Germany have found 10,500-year-old cremated human bones. These Mesolithic era ‘bog bones’ are the oldest human remains found so far in northern Germany.

Not only is this the earliest known human burial in northern Germany, it is also the first time human remains have been found at Duvensee Bog, the site of several campsites from the Mesolithic era or Middle Stone Age (between 15,000 and 5,000 years ago) in the Schleswig-Holstein region, according .

The cremated bog bones are about 10,500 years old. They are the first human remains found at any of the Mesolithic sites at the Duvensee bog.

Duvensee Bog is a prehistoric inland lake that has completely silted over in the last 8,000 years and formed a peat bog. The bog’s anaerobic environment naturally preserves organic remains, but there was so little of the burnt bones that it wasn’t until the discovery of a human thigh bone that the archaeologists were  able to confirm that they had unearthed a human burial, reports Arkeonews.

The Ancient Duvensee Campsites

The campsite where the bog bones were recovered is only one of at least 20 Mesolithic and Neolithic campsites at Duvensee, and it is located at what was once the western shore of the prehistoric lake. The campsites were used for roasting hazelnuts and spearing fish, both very valuable sources of nutrition for hunter gatherers.

Paddle of Duvensee dating to around 6200 BC. It is one of the world’s oldest surviving wooden paddles.

The campsites increased in size over time, possibly indicating a wider spread of hazelnut trees as the climate changed. “In the beginning, we have only small hazelnut roasting hearths, and in the later sites, they become much bigger,” Harald Lubke, an archaeologist at the Center for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, an agency of the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation.

The burial campsite was first discovered by archaeologist Klaus Bokelmann and his students in the late 1980s. They discovered worked flint artifacts there not during an archaeological excavation but as a result of a casual challenge issued during a barbecue at a house in a nearby village.

The entire area has yielded flint fragments although flint doesn’t occur naturally there. According to Lubke, this seems to indicate that the hunter gatherers repaired their tools and weapons here when they used the campsites during the annual hazelnut harvest in autumn.

The Cremated Bog Bones

The first sites Bokelmann and his team investigated were on what must have been islands in the ancient lakes. While they found mats made of bark for sitting on the damp soil, pieces of worked flint, and the remains of many Mesolithic fireplaces for roasting hazelnuts, they didn’t find any burials at the island sites.

“Maybe they didn’t bury people on the islands but only at the sites on the lake border, which seem to have had a different kind of function,” Lubke .

Unlike in the later Mesolithic period, there were no designated burial sites during the early Mesolithic period and the dead seem to have been buried near where they died, according to Lubke.

At the Duvensee burial, pieces of the largest bones were left after the cremation, and it’s not clear if they were wrapped in hide or bark before they were buried.

Archaeologists unearth the oldest burial site to date in northern Germany.

The find is very significant given that it is extremely rare to find human burials from the early Mesolithic period in Europe. While Late Mesolithic (seventh-sixth millennium BC) graves have been found in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia, the only other early Mesolithic burial found in Europe so far is in Hammelev in southern Denmark, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) to the north of the Duvensee site. Interestingly, that too is a cremation burial, indicating that cremation may have been the preferred funerary practice at the time.

Several sizable bone fragments that were not completely charred were found during the excavation. Lubke hopes that they will be able to recover archaeological DNA from them, Arkeonews reports. The entire grave was raised in a soil block for laboratory study.

A Connection with Mesolithic Sites in Britain

The Duvensee campsites date to around the same time as the Mesolithic site at Star Carr in North Yorkshire and some of the artifacts found there are remarkably similar.

At that time and until about 8,000 years ago, Lubke explains that the Schleswig-Holstein region and Britain were connected by a now-submerged region called Doggerland, and Mesolithic groups would have exchanged technologies across the regions.

While archaeologists have been digging at Duvensee Bog since 1923, according to Arkeonews, and have also discovered Stone Age hunter gatherer shelters there, the recent cremation burial find has been very exciting.

It has energized them to step up excavations in the region in the hope of discovering what other activities its Mesolithic occupants carried out there. “We’ve only opened a new door here at the moment. But behind it, there are only dark rooms at the moment,” Lubke said.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

46,000-yr-old “Icebird” Found Totally Intact with Feathers and Beak

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46,000-yr-old “Icebird” Found Totally Intact with Feathers and Beak

A prehistoric “Icebird” has been found in Siberian permafrost in remarkably good shape. The freezing temperatures in parts of Russia, particularly Siberia, may be tough for most folks to cope with, especially during the long winter months.

But for scientists, the region can provide tremendous learning opportunities, because the permafrost often captures, and preserves, animal and bird specimens that the cold keeps largely unchanged from their original forms for.

That enables scientists and researchers to discover a great deal about these species, as they arrive in labs almost identical to the way they looked thousands of years ago.

In early December 2019, for example, the body of an 18,000 year-old puppy, either a dog or a wolf, was found in the permafrost near Yakutsk with it hair, teeth, tail and even its eyelashes intact.

It is undergoing tests now, and scientists predict it would reveal a great deal about how wolves evolved into the domestic dogs we know today.

The 18,000-yr-old permafrost puppy.

In 2010, a baby woolly mammoth was found on Russia’s Arctic coast that was approximately 39,000 years old. In spite of its age, it was so well preserved that researchers even found hair on large portions of its carcass.

Russia has again brought such a specimen to the doorstep of scientists, this time a 46,000 year old bird, so well preserved that the hunters who found it, deep in a mine shaft, thought it had been alive only 24 hours earlier.

It is complete with feathers and even a beak so researchers know it is an ancestor of the modern day horned lark. (They have dubbed it “icebird.”)

The 46,000-yr-old “Icebird” found in Siberia’s permafrost.

The team studying the bird told the media that it is the first example of a bird from the last Ice Age found in the area.

It was fossil hunters, who go out specifically to look for treasures like this, who found the bird down the mine tunnel, about seven metres below ground. They were scouting the area near the town of Belaya Gora, in northeastern Siberia.

“Icebird” was sent to the Swedish Museum of Natural History, where it is being studied by paleontologist Love Dalen. He told the dailymail.com, “This finding implies that the climactic changes that took place at the end of the last Ice Age led to (the) formation of new subspecies.”

The underside of Iceberg.

Sounding almost awestruck, Dalen added, “I was holding that little bird in my hand, and feeling like it could have died yesterday, but might actually have died tens of thousands of years ago.”

And because “icebird” was whole, with no indications of a fight, or struggle with a predator, Dalen said the bird did not expire in any violent way but rather passed away “easily”.

The fact that such a small and fragile specimen was near intact also suggests that dirt (and) mud must have been deposited gradually. Or at least that the bird’s carcass was preserved in a state very close to its time of passing.

In other words, it flew, it ended peacefully, and the permafrost took care of the rest, bringing the bird forward through time to present modern scientists to study and learn much about species in the last Ice Age.

Modern day North American Horned Lark.

Permafrost gives researchers many opportunities to delve into everything from specimens like this latest find, “icebird,” to mankind himself. Not long ago several bodies, some 2,500 years old, were found in Siberia, and they were so well preserved that even the tattoos on their skin were legible.

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Lost Mountain Pass Found in Norway and it’s Full of Viking Artifacts

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Lost Mountain Pass Found in Norway and it’s Full of Viking Artifacts

Melting of glaciers in many Scandinavian countries has unearthed a lost viking mountain pass. And it was in 2011 that the hot sun of summer began to melt the Lendbreen Glacier at the Lomseggen mountain ridge in Breheimen National Park in Norway about two hundred miles from Oslo.

Since then, archaeologists have discovered a former mountain pass used during the Viking era as a route for people traveling between valleys, such as Bøverdalen and Ottadalen.

Some moved from permanent farms in valleys to summer farms at higher altitudes while others were traveling a long way, possibly even out of Norway.

The Lendbreen ice patch.

Some of the treasure trove of artifacts found on the passage have been dated from 4,000 B.C. and include Viking swords, clothing, horse skulls, a three thousand four hundred year old shoe made from untanned animal hide found in 2006, arrowheads with wooden shafts, and a large amount of horse dung.

Dr. Lars Holger Pilø, co-director of the Glacier Archaeology Program at Oppland County Council in Norway, began the glacier archaeology in 2011 after a complete Iron Age tunic from Lendbreen was found. Results and images of these findings can also be found at Secrets of the Ice.

The ruins of a stone-built shelter in the pass.
Iron Age tunic dated to 300 AD.

Over the next several years, more than one thousand objects have been discovered, but only about sixty have been carbon dated. According to National Geographic, most of the items have been found in a melting ice patch which preserves objects better than if they fell into a glacier.

Glacier ice moves and usually destroys any relics that have been dropped there, but ice patches stay in place, preserving articles for thousands of years.

Wooden bit used for goat kids and lambs to not get their mother’s milk, as it was used for human consumption.
A wooden whisk, radiocarbon-dated to the 11th century AD.

Pilø also discovered a small rock shelter and stacked rock formations called cairns used as sort of road signs guiding travelers through the pass as they moved about Norway leading him to believe that the pass was a busy travel route for almost one thousand years.

Traffic in the pass was reduced after the Viking Age which could have been the result of the Bubonic plague that emerged in 1190 BC and decimated Norway, wiping out up to two-thirds of the population in the fourteenth century.

A ”tong” found by two team members in the mountain pass at Lendbreen.
Ancient horseshoe found at Lendbreen.

Another factor could have been a colder period, the Little Ice Age, perhaps caused by the eruption of Mt. Hekla in the south of Iceland in 1159 BC which was comparable to the eruption of Mt.

Vesuvius in 79 AD according Dr. Philip Norrie of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine in Australia in his 2016 book, A History of Disease in Ancient Times at Springer Link.

Shoe from the 11th century AD.

Dr. Pilø, in Smithsonian Magazine, notes that there were several pandemics during the middle ages, all of which impacted population, lifestyle, and travel.

Fewer people traveled either to summer farms or long-distance. Later, as population and life normalized, the pass had become a distant memory, used by few.

Dated to the 10th century AD, this is a very well-preserved textile containing its original blue color.

The finds at Lendbreen have been of great archeological value. But there may be a problem now. Once organic ancient artifacts such as textiles, leather, wood, wool, and bone are exposed to air and light they deteriorate quickly and must be harvested right away to preserve them.

Ice archaeologists have covered an area of about forty-five acres at Lendbreen, possibly the largest glacial archaeology survey ever performed.

Viking Age spear, originally found in one piece in front of the Lendbreen ice patch of the Viking mountain pass.

The 2019 season yielded a big melt and another fruitful season with the remains of a dog still wearing a collar and leash, the bones of pack horses and a sled, and more horseshoes as well as a horse snowshoe from possibly from the 11th to about the 14th century.

EUROPE, ROMAN, WORLD

2,000-Years-Old Sapphire Ring Belonging to The Roman Emperor Caligula, Depicting his Wife Caesonia

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2,000-Years-Old Sapphire Ring Belonging to The Roman Emperor Caligula, Depicting his Wife Caesonia

The Roman emperor Caligula, who had been governing for four years from AD 37 until his assassination, was said to own an exquisite 2,000-year-old ring of Sapphire.

Mysterious beautiful face engraved on a 2,000-year-old sapphire ring of the Roman emperor. The 2,000-year-old ring is believed to be from the Roman emperor Caligula.

The sky blue hololith, made from a single piece of the precious stone, is believed to have been owned by Caligula. The face engraved into the bezel is thought to be his fourth and last wife Caesonia, who was said to be so beautiful Caligula paraded her naked in front of his friends.

The reason for Caligula’s assassination could stem from the extravagance of spending, especially on precious stones, which depleted the Roman treasury.

There are even rumors that Caligula also incestuous relationships with sisters in the royal family and adultery with the wives of allies.

Worth mentioning, this ancient sapphire ring has a woman’s face engraved on it. According to the Daily Mail, this woman is Caesonia, Caligula’s fourth wife.

Caesonia possesses the beauty of tilting the water, tilting the city. Emperor Caligula even once naked his wife and march in front of friends for people to admire. However, “beautiful fate”, Caesonia was killed shortly after Emperor Caligula was assassinated.

The sapphire ring is said to have attracted attention during an exhibition of more than 100 gems held by jewelry company Wartski next week in London, England. Its value is about USD 7,000 – USD 750,000.

The auction became a major concern for gem collectors around the world. People from Japan even lined up outside Wartski’s premises days before the exhibition was first approved.

Mysterious beautiful face engraved on a 2,000-year-old sapphire ring of the Roman emperor. Close-up of the beautiful face engraved on the “Caligula ring”.

The “Caligula Ring” is in the Earl Marlund Gems “Marlborough Gems” from 1637 to 1762. This is a collection of 800 gems carved by George Spencer, the 4th earl of Marlborough, into the late 18th century, early 19th century.

They were sold in 1875 by John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Earl of Marlborough, to fund the repair of the Blenheim Palace.

“This ring is one of the precious pieces of the” Marlborough Gems “collection. It is made entirely of sapphire. Very few of these rings still exist and I bet this is the best one of you. find.

We believe it belongs to Emperor Caligula and the face that appears on the ring is his fourth wife, Caesonia, “said Kieran McCarthy, director of Wartski.

EUROPE, ROMAN, WORLD

A “Fast Food” Shop Is Uncovered In Pompeii, Depicting Some Of The Dishes They Would Eat

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A “Fast Food” Shop Is Uncovered In Pompeii, Depicting Some Of The Dishes They Would Eat


The ancient world was much more lively and colorful than many of us give it credit for. Some discoveries also show just how similar we were to the people who lived thousands of years ago… from our love of snacks to our love of colorful and eye-catching art.

Archaeologists have made a stunning discovery in Pompeii: they uncovered a hot food and drinks shop that’s decorated with gorgeous and detailed frescoes. The shop, known as a thermopolium in Latin, served the equivalent of street food to Romans. And what I wouldn’t give for a bite and a drink.

Researchers discovered the shop in the Regio V site in the Pompeii archaeological park. You’ll remember Pompeii from history class, dear Pandas. It’s a city with a population of around 13,000 people that Mount Vesuvius covered in volcanic ash in the year 79 AD.

Bored Panda reached out to the team at the Pompeii Archaeological Park to learn more about the newest finds, what we know about Pompeian cuisine, and how the thermopolium remained in such great condition over the years. Read on for their educational insights, dear Pandas!

Archaeologists uncovered an ancient snack bar in the Regio V site in Pompeii

“From the preliminary analysis of the remains found during the emptying of the containers incorporated into the counter structure, we know of the presence of a slaughtered fragment of pork bone, a fragment of duck bone, and a herringbone,” the archaeological officer from the Park told Bored Panda.

They explained that we can draw information about the eating habits in the Vesuvian city mainly from the Latin writers Apicius, Columella, and Pliny who lived between the first century BC and the first century AD.

Some of the staples included pork and fish; but so far, a lot about the dishes served in the thermopolium is still guesswork. “We know that in the Pompeian cuisine, as in general on the Roman tables, pork was particularly appreciated which could be cooked fresh or preserved through smoking or salting procedures.

The consumption of fish was also particularly widespread. At the current state of research, we are not yet able to define exactly which dishes were served at the thermopolium: the work in progress on the containers could, however, reveal pleasant surprises and news in the near future.”

The bar is decorated with gorgeous frescoes of animals, some of which were served by the vendor (not the dog, obviously)

The archaeological officer explained to Bored Panda that Pompeii represents “an exceptional case of conservation” for the very same reasons that brought about its doom. “The violent eruptive phenomenon caused, in just 19 hours of activity, the death and burial of the entire city, originating, at the same time, a singular phenomenon of conservation of the buildings and the objects they contain.

In the early stages of the Plinian event [i.e. Vesuvian eruption], the eruptive materials, the pumice, falling on the city invaded and filled every free space; subsequently, the pyroclastic flow of cinerite sealed, like a large plug, the whole of Pompeii.”

All things considered, the frescoes are in wonderful condition

They continued: “Therefore, a condition of total absence of light, air, and humidity has been created under this cap which has significantly contributed to the conservation not only of the wall structures and furnishings, but above all of the surfaces characterized by the presence of decorative elements.

The pictorial films, in fact, are particularly damaged precisely by light, air, and humidity; the lack of these three elements, over the course of about two thousand years, has allowed us to discover the original colors of the paintings that emerged during the excavation of the thermopolium.”

The vendor would put their jars of food into the holes in the bar

However, there’s some sad news. The officer revealed that the excavation investigations in Regio V that brought us the delightful thermopolium environment and the frescoed counter will end in August of 2022. “No other [excavation] campaigns are planned, at least so far. excavation in this Regio V, which from 2022 to has reserved us many surprises.

However, it would be nice to be able to continue the excavations in the environments that develop around the thermopolium, partly already brought to light, in such a way as to be able to reconstruct this corner of insula 3.” So, we’re not losing hope just yet, but we can’t deny that we can’t wait to see what future excavations will bring to light.

Researchers made other recent discoveries in the Regio V site as well


They also discovered human bones

“This is an extraordinary find. It’s the first time we are excavating an entire thermopolium,” Massimo Ossana, the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, told the media.

I personally spent a good 5 minutes looking at the frescoes in detail because they’re absolutely gorgeous. Especially the hen one. The details and colors there are stunning. I never knew an uncooked chicken could make me feel so happy.

Frescoes are usually painted on freshly applied plaster using water-based pigments. As the paint dries, it sets together with the plaster and becomes a permanent part of the surroundings.

Archaeologists found traces of food in the thermopolium’s terracotta jars, including beef, pork, fish, and snails. Vendors would lower the jars into the shop’s counter that had circular holes to hold them.

Meanwhile, the front of the counter was decorated with colorful frescoes (they really do catch the eye, don’t they?), some of which included animals that you’d find in the snacks.

What’s more, researchers discovered wine flasks, amphorae, jars for making soups and cooking stews, and a patera—a decorated bronze drinking bowl. You could get pretty much everything that you’d want here.

What did you think of the thermopolium, dear Readers? Would you love to wet your taste buds with whatever the ancient Romans were offering to buy at the time? Which of the frescoes did you enjoy looking at the most? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section!

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

5,400-year-old tomb discovered in Spain perfectly captures thesummer solstice

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5,400-year-old tomb discovered in Spain perfectly captures the summer solstice

Archaeologists have discovered a 5,400-year-old stone tomb beside a prominent lone mountain in southern Spain, indicating it was a local focus for the prehistoric people of the region.

Archaeologists found the 5,400 year-old stone tomb in the “neck” area of a prominent mountain that looks from some angles like the head of a sleeping giant.

Archaeologists have discovered a 5,400-year-old megalithic tomb near a prominent lone mountain in southern Spain, suggesting the peak may have been meaningful to prehistoric people there.

The area, in the countryside near the city of Antequera, is renowned for its megaliths — prehistoric monuments made from large stones — and the newly found tomb seems to solve one of the mysteries of their alignment.

The tomb was designed to funnel light from the rising midsummer sun into a chamber deep within — much like the contemporary megalithic tomb built more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away at Newgrange in Ireland, suggesting both places shared similar beliefs about the afterlife more than 5,000 years ago.

The tomb was constructed about 3400 B.C. with a passage aligned to sunrise on the summer solstice that cast light onto decorative rocks on the walls of a chamber within.

“Newgrange is much bigger and more complex than the tomb we have discovered [in Spain], but they have something in common — the interest of the builders to use sunlight at a specific time of the year, to produce a symbolic — possibly magic — effect,” Leonardo García Sanjuán, an archaeologist at the University of Seville. 

The bedrock at the site is tilted away from the position of the sunrise on the solstice at midsummer, so the builders deliberately constructed a cavity to admit its light, according to a study by García Sanjuán and his colleagues published April 14 in the journal Antiquity.

Related: 2,600-year-old stone busts of ‘lost’ ancient Tartessos people discovered in sealed pit in Spain

“They worked very cleverly to make an arrangement of stones, which were engraved and possibly painted,” he said. “These were sacred things placed so that the sunrise on the [summer] solstice would go straight into the back of the chamber.”

The archaeologists found human remains in the tomb from several different burials, held there in three major phases for over 1,000 years.

Megalithic tomb

The new study describes excavations by García Sanjuán and his team beside a prominent limestone mountain known as La Peña de los Enamorados — the Rock of the Lovers — named after a  legend that says two star-crossed lovers once killed themselves by jumping off it.

The mountain is also famous because it looks like the profile of the head of a sleeping giant, especially at times of low light such as sunrise and sunset.

García Sanjuán and his colleagues excavated the tomb in late 2020 in the “neck” region of the mountain, near the Matacabras rock shelter, which is adorned with pictographs thought to be painted about 5,800 years ago. They think the tomb was first built a few hundred years after the rock paintings were made, and that it was used for burials for more than 1,000 years.

he archaeologists also found stone tools and pieces of pottery in the tomb. They are particularly interested in any residues on the pottery, which could show what they held as grave goods.

The archaeologists have found several deposits of human remains in the newfound tomb, dating from three major phases of its use, as well as pieces of pottery.

Ancient landscape

The tomb was found beside the prominent mountain known as La Peña de los Enamorados — the Rock of the Lovers — because legends say two star-crossed lovers once killed themselves by jumping off it.

The Antequera area is famed for its natural rock formations like La Peña and the megalithic monuments in the region, which may have been influenced by the local geography. The most famous is the Dolmen of Menga — one of the largest and oldest megalithic structures in Europe, which was built between 3800 B.C. and 3600 B.C. 

But the passage in Menga is not aligned to a solstice sunrise or sunset, as might be expected — instead, Menga points toward La Peña de los Enamorados, about 4 miles (6.5 km) to the northeast. (The other two megaliths in the region were built later and seem to point elsewhere.)

The alignment suggests La Peña was an important focus for local prehistoric people and solves a mystery of where Menga was pointing: to the location of both the rock art and the newly found tomb at  La Peña, while the tomb at La Peña itself pointed to the solstice sunrise, García Sanjuán said.  

The inner chamber of the newfound tomb is decorated with a distinctive stone with ripple marks on its surface, which was taken from a region that had once been a beach or part of the seabed.

A passage in the tomb is aligned to the rising sun on the day of the summer solstice. Similar alignments have been seen at megalithic tombs elsewhere in Europe.

The stone was placed so that the light from the rising midsummer sun fell upon it; and the part of the burial chamber in front of it seems to have been kept clear of human remains, García Sanjuán said.

“These people chose this stone precisely because it created these waving, undulating shapes,” he said. “This was very theatrical… they were very clever in producing these special visual effects.”

He noted that megalithic structures have been found from Morocco to Sweden, and that the people who built them seem to have had similar beliefs. 

“There are differences as well, but one common element is the sun,” García  Sanjuán said. “The sun was at the center of the worldview of these people.”

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

The Mysterious Underwater Land Mass Known as the ‘British Atlantis’

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The Mysterious Underwater Land Mass Known as the ‘British Atlantis’

The area known as Doggerland is a real-life Atlantis from a time when the British Isles were neither British nor Isles.

The land occupied a great portion of where the waters of the North Sea extend nowadays.

After the last major Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, the area got flooded over time by the rising sea levels.

Map showing hypothetical extent of Doggerland (c. 10,000 BC), which provided a land bridge between Great Britain and continental Europe.

Just like London mudlarks retrieve all sorts of memorabilia and historical items from the Thames riverbed, fishermen in the North Sea have reported findings including ancient bones, artifacts, and 9,000-year-old tools.

Dutch and British archaeologists and paleontologists were immediately interested by the discoveries as they were evidence for the existence of Doggerland.

This could be a leftover from Doggerland.

Named after the Dogger Bank, Doggerland was first mentioned in a book A Story of the Stone Age by H.G. Wells, written in the late 19th century. The book suggested the existence of a prehistoric region that fused Britain’s east coast with the European mainland.

Archaeologists at the University of Bradford are working on a huge project to reconstruct the ancient Doggerland landscape which is now underneath the sea.

They are aiming to produce a 3D chart of the landscape with the help of seabed mapping data gathered by energy companies.

The red line marks Dogger Bank, which is most likely a moraine formed in the Pleistocene.

In the meantime, scientists wait on core sediment samples to extract DNA fragments from plants and animals, so that we can learn more about the flora and fauna that once existed.

Before the last glacial period, the vast piece of land that connected Europe and Britain consisted of a diverse mix of gentle hills, swampland, and dense forests.

With the lessening of the huge weight of ice, melting water got locked away which caused the land to tilt in an isostatic adjustment.

Early Holocene landscape features mapped by the North Sea Palaeolandscapes Project.

The ancient region was inhabited by thousands of Mesolithic Stone Age settlers. It was also a very important land bridge between Europe and Britain.

According to the evidence gathered, scientists believe that the Doggerlanders were nomadic hunter-gatherers who migrated with the season. They lived on hunting, fishing, and gathering foods such as berries, nuts, and mushrooms.

Map of Doggerbank, 1867.

For hundreds of years, fishermen have pulled up all kinds of finds in their nets in the area off the coast of Dogger Bank.

In 1931, there was a famous discovery of a lump of peat which contained an ornate barbed antler point used for harpooning fish. It was hauled up near the Ower Bank, 25 miles off the English coast.

Woolly mammoth skull discovered by fishermen in the North Sea, at the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum, Ireland.

It is most likely that Doggerland was habitable until 10,000 BC and that the last remaining island was flooded in a single gigantic event some 8,000 years ago.

There was an enormous landslide off the coast of Norway, the Storegga Slide, in which an estimated 180-mile length of the coastal shelf crashed in the Norwegian Sea. That triggered a tsunami in the North Atlantic Ocean with waves up to 17 feet in height.

Map showing hypothetical extent of Doggerland from Weichselian glaciation until the current situation.

“The only populated lands on earth that have not yet been explored in any depth are those which have been lost underneath the sea,” says Professor Vince Gaffney, Anniversary Chair in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Bradford.

The study of this long-forgotten, sunken Stone Age habitat is important so that we can learn about the ultimate outcomes of potentially rising sea levels.

Experts who study and research Doggerland are attempting to connect the events that caused the disappearance of the land with present day possibilities.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

10,000-Year-Old Crayon Found in Ancient Lake Was Used to Decorate Animal Skins

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10,000-Year-Old Crayon Found in Ancient Lake Was Used to Decorate Animal Skins

Archaeologists have reportedly discovered a prehistoric, ochre crayon believed to have been used to draw on animal skins 10,000 years ago. The crayon was discovered near the site of an ancient lake in North Yorkshire, England.

Earliest Example of Crayon Discovered?

The area where the crayon was found is near one of the most famous Mesolithic sites in Europe, Star Carr. As the experts suggest, this could be a very important and historic discovery, as it may be the earliest example of a crayon ever found.

The crayon is made of a red mineral pigment called ochre and was unearthed near an ancient lake now covered in peat, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire as BBC News reported .

Archaeologists speculate that the crayon could have possibly been used by humans nearly 10,000 years ago for applying color to their animal skins or for artwork.

The Mesolithic Settlement Site Known as “Star Carr”

Star Carr is a Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) archaeological site, dating to around 9000 BC, just centuries after the end of the last Ice Age. It has become world famous in the archaeological world due to the preservation of artifacts found buried deep in the peat.

These incredibly rare finds include headdresses made from red deer skulls, thought to be used by shamans in ritual practices, barbed points (harpoons) used in hunting and fishing, the “oldest house in Britain”, and the earliest evidence of carpentry that we have in Europe.

The ancient archaeological site of Star Carr in Yorkshire, England.

The man who discovered the site of Star Carr was John Moore, a local amateur archaeologist who found 10 sites in the area from 1947. He carried out a small excavation at Star Carr in 1948 and found some flint, bone and antler.

Contact was made with Grahame Clark, lecturer of Prehistory at the University of Cambridge who was looking to excavate a Mesolithic site which preserved organic materials such as bone, antler and wood. From 1949-1951 Clark excavated Star Carr and published his findings in 1954.

Clark uncovered an amazing array of finds, including an engraved shale pendant which is considered the oldest Mesolithic art in Britain. On what would have been the lakeshore was a platform that appeared to have been made by people.

On top and within this platform the excavators found a range of animal remains: red deer, roe deer, wild boar, elk, auroch (wild cow), birds, beaver, pine marten, hedgehog, hare and badger. Finds of wolf were also made, later thought to be domesticated dog.

There were a lot of flint artefacts and waste including scrapers, probably used for cleaning hides of animals, axes for woodworking and ‘microliths’ which were used as the tips of arrows.

Cooperation between the departments of Archaeology and Physics, brought archaeologists from the University of York to the site again, where they discovered the crayon, along with other items as BBC News reports .

The ochre – a pigment made from clay and sand – crayon has a striped surface and a sharpened point that is considered to have been shaped and scraped in order to produce a red pigment powder.

Red ochre pigment

Dr. Andy Needham, lead author of the study, noted that the latest finds will help researchers to understand Mesolithic life better. “It is possible there could have been an artistic use for these objects, perhaps for colouring animal skins or for use in decorative artwork.

Colour was a very significant part of hunter-gatherer life and ochre gives you a very vibrant red colour,” he said via BBC News .“ And added, “One of the latest objects we have found looks exactly like a crayon, the tip is faceted and has gone from a rounded end to a really sharpened end, suggesting it has been used.”

EUROPE, PORTUGAL, WORLD

Archaeologists Now Believe That 8,000-Year-Old Human Skeletons From Portugal Are the World’s Oldest Mummies

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Archaeologists Now Believe That 8,000-Year-Old Human Skeletons From Portugal Are the World’s Oldest Mummies

New research suggests that a set of 8,000-year-old human skeletons buried in Portugal’s Sado Valley could be the world’s oldest known mummies.

An illustration of guided natural mummification, with reduction of the soft tissue volume. Courtesy of Uppsala University and Linnaeus University in Sweden and University of Lisbon in Portugal.

Based on photographs taken of 13 bodies when they were first exhumed in the 1960s, researchers have been able to reconstruct likely burial positions, shedding light on mortuary rituals used by European Mesolithic peoples.

The study, published in the European Journal of Archaeology by a team from Uppsala University and Linnaeus University in Sweden and the University of Lisbon in Portugal, suggests that people in the Sado Valley were engaging in desiccation through mummification.

The soft tissue on the bodies is no longer preserved, which makes looking for signs of such preservation challenging. Experts used a method called archaeothanatology to document and analyze the remains, and also looked to the results of decomposition experiments conducted by the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State University.

Skeleton XII from Sado Valley, Portugal, photographed in 1960 at the time of its excavation. The extreme ‘clumping’ of the lower limbs may suggest the body was prepared and desiccated prior to burial. Photo by Poças de S. Bento.

Based on what we know about how the body decomposes, as well as observations about the spatial distribution of the bones, archaeologists made deductions about how the people of the Sado Valley handled the bodies of their dead, which they buried with the knees bent and pressed against the chest.

As the bodies gradually became desiccated, it appears that living humans tightened ropes binding the limbs in place, compressing them into the desired position.

If the bodies were buried in a desiccated state, rather than as a fresh corpse, that would explain some of the signs of mummification practices.

An illustration comparing the burial of a fresh cadaver and a desiccated body that has undergone guided mummification. Courtesy of Uppsala University and Linnaeus University in Sweden and University of Lisbon in Portugal.

There isn’t the the disarticulation you would expect in the joints, and the bodies show hyperflexion in the limbs. The way that the sediment gathers around the bones maintained the articulation of the joints, and also indicates that the flesh did not decay after burial.

The people of the Sado Valley may have chosen to mummify their dead for ease of transport to the grave, and for the body to better retain its shape in life after burial.

If European mummification practices do indeed date back thousands of years prior than previously known, it could enhance our understanding of Mesolithic belief systems, particularly as they relate to death and burial.

Most of the world’s surviving mummies date from no earlier than 4,000 years ago, although evidence suggests the ancient Egyptians may have begun the practice as early as 5,700 years ago.

The bodies of the Chinchorro mummies from coastal Chile, long believed to be the world’s oldest mummies, were intentionally preserved by the region’s hunter-gatherers around 7,000 years ago.