Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, ROMAN, WORLD

A 1,600-year-old basilica re-emerged due to the withdrawal of waters from lake iznik

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A 1,600-year-old basilica re-emerged due to the withdrawal of waters from lake iznik

The 1600-year-old basilica found under Lake Iznik in crystal clear water shows breathtaking aerial images. Archeologists and art historians believe that after an earthquake in 740, the religious structure collapsed during an earthquake in 740, before sinking further into the lake.

The underwater building lies between 1.5 and 2 meters below the sea and can be clearly seen for the first time, as the coronavirus lockdown has resulted in less water pollution.

The local authority recently flew a drone over the site to take stunning images, revealing the basilica’s walls and structure just below the lake’s surface.

In 2014, when it was first found by experts, the Archaeological Institute of America named the basilica one of the top 10 discoveries of the year. It was discovered while photographing the area from the air for an inventory of historic sites and cultural artifacts.

Five years ago the Doğan News Agency reported that the submerged structure was set to become an underwater museum. Experts believe it was built in AD 390, to honor St. Neophytos, who was among the saints and devout Christians martyred during the time of Roman emperors Diocletian and Galerius.

Neophytos was killed by Roman soldiers in A.D. 303, a decade before an official proclamation permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire, they say.

I thought to myself, ‘How did nobody notice these ruins before?’ said Prof Mustafa Sahin

Uludag University Head of Archaeology Department Prof Mustafa Sahin told the agency in 2015 the church was built in tribute to him, at the place where he was killed.

He said: “We think that the church was built in the 4th century or a later date.

“It is interesting that we have engravings from the Middle Ages depicting this killing. We see Neophytos being killed on the lake coast.” Ancient resources show that Christians definitely stopped by Iznik in the Middle Ages while making their pilgrimage to visit the church.

“Rumour has it that people in Iznik were asking for help from the body of Neophytos when they were in difficulty,” Sahin said.

The researcher told Live Science that he had been carrying out field surveys in Iznik since 2006, and “I hadn’t discovered such a magnificent structure like that.

“When I first saw the images of the lake, I was quite surprised to see a church structure that clearly.”

He also told the Archaeological Institute of America: “I did not believe my eyes when I saw it under the helicopter.

“I thought to myself, ‘How did nobody notice these ruins before?’”

PAGAN TEMPLE?

And, there might be a pagan temple beneath the church, reports The Weather Channel. Researchers have uncovered fragments of an ancient lamp and early coins from the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius – indicating a more historic structure buried under the church.

Sahin said he believed the basilica could have been built on top of a temple to Apollo. The information shows there is a connection with the Roman emperor Commodus – to a similar temple at Iznik, then known as Nicea, outside the city walls.

Early coins found at the submerged basilica

“Could this temple have been underneath the basilica remains?” Sahin asked of the church, which is to be transformed into an underwater archaeological museum.

The early Byzantine-era basilica has architectural elements from the early period of Christianity and is situated 20 meters from the banks of Lake Iznik in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa.

Archaeological finds excavated since 2015 include the memorial stamp of the Scottish knights, who were believed to have been among the first foreign visitors to the basilica, reports Daily Sabah.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

70,000 Years Ago Something Happened That SMayolve The Enduring Mystery Of Language Evolution

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70,000 Years Ago Something Happened That May Solve The Enduring Mystery Of Language Evolution

Scientists have tried to solve the enduring mystery of language evolution, and it seems something that happened 70,000 years ago may shed light on this ancient enigma.

According to the hypothesis called Romulus and Remus and coined by Dr. Vyshedskiy, a neuroscientist from Boston University, A genetic mutation that slowed down the development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in two or more children may have triggered a cascade of events leading to the acquisition of recursive language and modern imagination 70,000 years ago.

Numerous archeological and genetic evidence have already convinced most paleoanthropologists that the speech apparatus has reached essentially modern configurations before the human line split from the Neanderthal line 600,000 years ago. Considering that the chimpanzee communication system already has 20 to 100 different vocalizations, it is likely that the modern-like remodeling of the vocal apparatus extended our ancestors’ range of vocalizations by orders of magnitude.

In other words, by 600,000 years ago, the number of distinct verbalizations used for communication must have been on par with the number of words in modern languages.

The Shepherd Faustulus Bringing Romulus and Remus to His Wife, Nicolas Mignard (1654).

On the other hand, artifacts signifying modern imagination, such as composite figurative arts, elaborate burials, bone needles with an eye, and the construction of dwellings arose not earlier than 70,000 years ago. The half million-year-gap between the acquisition of the modern speech apparatus and modern imagination has baffled scientists for decades.

While studying the acquisition of imagination in children, Dr. Vyshedskiy and his colleagues discovered a temporal limit for the development of a particular component of imagination.

It became apparent that modern children who have not been exposed to full language in early childhood never acquire the type of active constructive imagination essential for the juxtaposition of mental objects, known as Prefrontal Synthesis (PFS).

“To understand the importance of PFS, consider these two sentences: “A dog bit my friend” and “My friend bit a dog.” It is impossible to distinguish the difference in meaning using words or grammar alone since both words and grammatical structure are identical in these two sentences. Understanding the difference in meaning and appreciating the misfortune of the 1st sentence and the humor of the 2nd sentence depends on the listener’s ability to juxtapose the two mental objects: the friend and the dog.

Only after the PFC forms the two different images in front of the mind’s eye, are we able to understand the difference between the two sentences.

Similarly, nested explanations, such as “a snake on the boulder to the left of the tall tree that is behind the hill,” force listeners to use PFS to combine objects (a snake, the boulder, the tree, and the hill) into a novel scene.

Flexible object combination and nesting (otherwise known as recursion) are characteristic features of all human languages. For this reason, linguists refer to modern languages as recursive languages,” Dr. Vyshedskiy explains.

Unlike vocabulary and grammar acquisition, which can be learned throughout one’s lifetime, there is a strong critical period for the development of PFS and individuals not exposed to conversations with recursive language in early childhood can never acquire PFS as adults.

Their language is always lacking understanding of spatial prepositions and recursion that depend on the PFS ability. In a similar manner, pre-modern humans would not have been able to learn recursive language as adults and, therefore, would not be able to teach recursive language to their own children, who, as a result, would not acquire PFS. Thus, the existence of a strong critical period for PFS acquisition creates a cultural evolutionary barrier for the acquisition of recursive language.

The second predicted evolutionary barrier was a faster PFC maturation rate and, consequently, a shorter critical period. In modern children the critical period for PFS acquisition closes around the age of five. If the critical period in pre-modern children was over by the age of two, they would have no chance of acquiring PFS. A longer critical period was imperative to provide enough time to train PFS via recursive conversations.

An evolutionary mathematical model, developed by Dr. Vyshedskiy, predicts that humans had to jump both evolutionary barriers within several generations since the “PFC delay” mutation that is found in all modern humans, but not in Neanderthals, is deleterious and is expected to be lost in a population without an associated acquisition of PFS and recursive language. Thus, the model suggests that the “PFC delay” mutation triggered simultaneous synergistic acquisition of PFS and recursive language.

The hypothesis is named after the celebrated twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Similar to the legendary Romulus and Remus, whose caregiver was a wolf, the real children’s caregivers had an animal-like communication system with many words, but no recursion.

Their parents could not have taught them spatial prepositions or recursion; children had to invent recursive elements of language themselves. Such an invention of a new recursive language has been observed in contemporary children, for example among deaf children in Nicaragua.

The lion-man sculpture from Germany (dated 37,000 years ago) must have been first imagined by the artist by mentally synthesizing parts of the man and beast together and then executing the product of this mental creation in ivory. The composite artworks provide direct evidence that by 37,000 years ago, humans have acquired prefrontal synthesis.

“The acquisition of PFS and recursive language 70,000 years ago resulted in what was in essence a behaviorally new species: the first behaviorally modern Homo sapiens,” concludes Dr. Vyshedskiy.

“This newly acquired power for the fast juxtaposition of mental objects in the process of PFS dramatically facilitated mental prototyping and led to a fast acceleration of technological progress. Armed with the unprecedented ability to mentally simulate any plan and equally unprecedented ability to communicate it to their companions, humans were poised to quickly become the dominant species.”

Humans acquired the ability to trap large animals and therefore gained a major nutritional advantage. As the population grew exponentially, humans diffused out of Africa and quickly settled in the most habitable areas of the planet, arriving in Australia around 50,000 years ago.

These humans were very much like modern humans since they possessed both components of full language: the culturally transmitted recursive language along with the innate predisposition towards PFS, enabled by the “PFC delay” mutation.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

1,800-year-old Roman Penis Carvings Discovered Near Hadrian’s Wall

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1,800-year-old Roman Penis Carvings Discovered Near Hadrian’s Wall

Hadrian’s Wall was a barrier constructed by the Romans to protect them from enemy hordes of barbarians. What remains of the structure is millennia old, and it remains a testament to its structural integrity to this day.

Repairs were often required, of course, for which loyal soldiers dutifully lugged sandstone materials around and patched up areas threatening to crumble. When these Romans got bored enough, however, it seems they left their mark in more ways than one.

Newcastle University and Historic England archaeologists have partnered with each other to record the newly discovered inscriptions — including caricatures, phrases, and even penis rendering, Historic England reported.

Colloquially known as “The Written Rock of Gelt,” researchers have learned a lot by descending down the Thirty-foot quarry in Cumbria, as the sandstone’s illustrative markings explore the military mindset involved in these repair works and how they passed the time.

This phallic graffiti from A.D. 207 was discovered at a quarry near Hadrian’s Wall by archaeologists from the University of Newcastle.

One inscription, “APRO ET MAXIMO CONSVLIBVS OFICINA MERCATI,” dates the carving back to 207 AD when Hadrian’s Wall underwent extensive repairs and renewals under the consulate of Aper and Maximus.

The phallus — used as a symbol of good luck by the Romans of the time — is only one of many carvings still being found. “The Written Rock of Gelt” was previously thought to consist of 9 Roman inscriptions, and while only 6 of them are currently legible, more are expected to be found.

The insight provided by this historical piece of stone also points to the army’s personal feelings about their superior, with the caricature of an officer presumably in charge of repairs making up one of the wall’s carvings.

“These inscriptions are probably the most important on the Wall frontier of Hadrian at Gelt Forest,” said Mike Collins, Historic England’s Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Hadrian’s Wall.

Roman writing was carved into the wall

“They provide insight into the organization of the vast construction project that Hadrian’s Wall was, as well as some very human and personal touches, such as the caricatures of their commanding officer inscribed by one group of soldiers.”

These discoveries are particularly exciting to those at the site because access to view these carvings was essentially shut down in the 1980s after the established path collapsed into a gorge of the adjacent Gelt River.

Unfortunately, the wall has been exposed to a great deal of water erosion since then — which makes recording its carvings all the more important.

“These inscriptions are highly vulnerable to further gradual decay,” said Ian Haynes, Newcastle University professor of archaeology.

A caricature was carved into the wall, likely a commanding officer

“This is a great opportunity to record them in 2019, using the best modern technology to protect their ability to study them in the future.”

Practically speaking, this means using ropes to descend into the quarry — and using laser scanning technology to record inscriptions as much as possible in detail.

These scans are then processed for further study by computers into digital, three–dimensional models. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this historic venture is that, for the first time in nearly 40 years, the public will be able to see these carvings closely, albeit digitally.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

The Largest Fossilized Human Turd Ever Found Came From a Sick Viking

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The Largest Fossilized Human Turd Ever Found Came From a Sick Viking


The proof is in this Fossilized excrement, which dates back to the 9th century. It was discovered about 40 years ago, and is famous for being the most expensive poo in the world!

The fossil is known as the Lloyds Bank Coloprite, the word “Coprolite” simply means Fossilized dung. The rest of its name refers to the fact that it was found in 1972 by construction workers during the building of a Lloyds TSB branch in York, in the northwest of England.

Put simply, this is a fossilized human turd. Not only that but the largest and – bizarrely – most valuable on record. It dates back to approximately the 9th century and the person responsible is believed to be a Viking. It currently rests at the Jórvík Viking Centre in the city of York, England.

Jórvík was the Viking name for York, with the Center part of an area that has yielded numerous treasures. Whether the Coprolite can be described as treasure is a question for the ages. That said, the details are fascinating.

The Lloyds Bank coprolite: fossilized human feces dug up from a Viking site in York, England. It contains large amounts of meat, pollen grains, cereal bran, and many eggs of whipworm and maw-worm (intestinal parasites).

The reason it’s named after Lloyds Bank isn’t some weird corporate branding exercise. The hefty deposit, measuring 8″ x 2″ (20 cm by 5 cm), was found beneath the site of the famous bank in 1972. And here’s a fun fact for the day – “Coprolite” means fossilized human faeces! Paleofeces is also a term used to describe ancient human droppings found as part of archaeological expeditions.

This is one mighty archaeological achievement. The Australian Academy of Science observed in 2017, “Human coprolites are very rare and tend to only be preserved in either very dry or frozen environments, however, samples have been found that date back to the Late Paleolithic—around 22,000 years ago.”

For a complete specimen to last this long is awe-inspiring, if not exactly need-to-know information. How do they know it came from a Viking? The ingredients that went into the epic production provide some clues.

“He was not a great vegetable eater,” wrote the Guardian in 2003, “instead of living on large amounts of meat and grains such as bran, despite fruit stones, nutshells and other stools containing matter from vegetables such as leeks being found on the same site.”

That all sounds normal enough, however the Viking’s bowels were also packed with creepy crawlies.

In 2016, the website Spangenhelm referred to “the presence of several hundred parasitic eggs (whipworm)”, which “suggests he or she was riddled with intestinal parasite worms (maw-worm).”

These unwanted invaders can cause serious health problems. The BBC describes conditions such as “stomach aches, diarrhoea, and inflammation of the bowel.” Get enough worms and things get worse, as “symptoms may simulate those of gastric and duodenal ulcers.”

Parasites aren’t known for standing still either. Adults “can migrate from the intestine and enter other organs where they can cause serious damage, even moving into such places as the ear and the nose of unfortunate suffers.”

On a more agreeable note, the malodorous museum piece has been valued at an extraordinary $39,000. No less a publication than the Wall Street Journal reported on the coprolite in 1991, with one source claiming it was “as valuable as the Crown Jewels”.

Human paleofeces from the Neolithic site Çatalhöyük, Turkey

British TV company Channel 4 delved deeper into the desiccated dropping in 2003, giving viewers an insight into what an ancient turd can reveal about the past. According to them, “If we ever succeed in extracting and analyzing DNA from the excrement, it could be possible to determine the kind of flora that this Viking had in his intestines.”

Those thinking that the excrement-based exhibit might lead to a boring existence are wrong. In fact, it’s faced potential disaster. 2003 is a significant year for the Lloyd’s Bank Coprolite, as it had a brush with destruction courtesy of an unsuspecting educator.

A Guardian report from the time writes that “all was well until two weeks ago when its display stand collapsed in the hands of an unfortunate teacher and, crashing to the floor, the rock-like lump broke into three pieces.”

Talk about a potentially sticky situation. What happens when fossilized faeces is damaged? It’s carefully glued back together of course! This saw the turd reconstructed as if it were a Roman vase or Aztec plate.

With careful maintenance, it’s hoped the Lloyds Bank Coprolite will go on for many years to come. For the individual whose historic diet resulted in the artifact, it was simply a bodily function. Centuries on, experts are flushed with their success in discovering it.

EUROPE, ROMAN, WORLD

2,000-Year-Old Iron Age and Ancient Roman Pottery Unearthed by Metal Detectorist in Wales

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2,000-Year-Old Iron Age and Ancient Roman Pottery Unearthed by Metal Detectorist in Wales


In March 2019, a metal detectorist was searching for artifacts in a field in Wales, and stumbled upon a hoard of exceptionally preserved objects dating back 2,000 years to the Roman era and Iron Age! Now officially declared treasure, these finds include a Roman pot and a Celtic bucket mount, which initially emerged as a bloc collection of buried treasures.

In total, eight objects, including two complete pieces, were unearthed from the field located in the scenic region of Llantrisant Fawr, Monmouthshire.

Other Roman pottery were vessels also part of the booty, stumbled upon by detectorist Jon Mathews. Although he wasn’t initially certain about the significance of his discovery, he had a strong intuition that it might be something of great importance, reports Wales Online .

The bucket mounts found at Llantrisant Fawr.

Acting upon this hunch, he promptly contacted the local find liaison officer, who recognized the potential value of the artifacts. With careful precision, the archaeologists delicately excavated the findings which were then transported to Amgueddfa Cymru, the National Museum of Wales, for further examination and preservation.

Following these initial findings, Jon Matthews joined the museum’s excavation team at the site.

Together, more artifacts were unearthed, including a captivating bowl adorned with an ox’s face! Initially mistaken for a brooch, this particular discovery left Jon, an experienced detectorist of ten years, in awe, describing the experience as “surreal.”

An Iron Age wooden bucket with copper fittings

“I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t think our ancestors could make such a beautiful, beautiful thing. I was quite shocked. I feel honoured to have found something so unique that is linked to Wales and our ancestors,” exclaimed Mr Matthews.

The subsequent investigations conducted by experts from the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales (PAS Cymru) and Amgueddfa Cymru uncovered a total of two complete and six fragmentary vessels.

Among the findings were remnants of two wooden tankards, an Iron Age bucket adorned with copper alloy fittings, an Iron Age copper alloy bowl, cauldron, and strainer, as well as two Roman copper alloy saucepans.

These vessels are believed to have been buried as a group during the second half of the first century AD, a tumultuous historical period surrounding the end of the Roman occupation of Britain .

The remarkable bowl with an ox head handle is a beautiful blue-green metal design and a wide-eyed ox with bowed horns. The lower lips or jaw extend outwards into the handle-like loop. The team has given this find the nickname of ‘Bovril’!

“Now that it’s been declared treasure, I’m excited to finally share this incredible hoard that I was so lucky to help excavate. The c.1st century AD Llantrisant Fawr vessel hoard found near Usk, Monmouthshire”

Alastair Willis, a senior curator at Amgueddfa Cymru, said, “The discovery of two coin hoards in the same field and in the general vicinity of the Roman town at Caerwent, is exciting and significant.

The results of the geophysical survey undertaken suggest the presence of a previously unknown settlement or religious site where the coin hoards were buried. This sheds light on life in the rural hinterland around the Roman town of Venta Silurum.

The discoveries are also important for understanding events happening in south-east Wales around the time when the Romans left, at the beginning of the fifth century AD.”

A Roman trulleus (saucepan) handle found at Llantrisant Fawr.

Interestingly, other significant discoveries were made in a ploughed field in Caerwent by metal detectorists Colin Price and Rhys Cadwallader between 2014 and 2022.

Their findings consisted of a hoard of Roman coins dating from the late-third to late-fourth centuries AD. The proximity of these coin hoards to the Roman town of Caerwent has led experts to believe that they might indicate the presence of an unknown settlement or religious site.

Dr David Howell, PAS Cymru Engagement Officer added, “The Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales plays a critical role in safeguarding Welsh heritage. Through a network of dedicated Finds Liaison Officers across Wales, and support from the Welsh Archaeological Trusts, PAS Cymru provides a service where finders of archaeological materials can formally report their objects.”

He also highlighted how years of invaluable information have enhanced our understanding of Welsh archaeology and history, in which PAS Cymru has played an invaluable role.

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Viking Sword Discovered On Papa Westray, Orkney Has Many Stories To Tell

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Viking Sword Discovered On Papa Westray, Orkney Has Many Stories To Tell


A Viking sword found at a burial site in Orkney is a rare, exciting and complex artifact, say archaeologists.

The find, made in 2015 on the northeast coast of Papa Westray, is being carefully examined as part of post-excavation work.

Archaeologists have now identified it as a type of heavy sword associated with the 9th Century. The relic is heavily corroded, but X-rays have revealed the sword’s guards to be highly decorated.

Contrasting metals are thought to have been used to create a honeycomb-like pattern.

The sword was found at a Viking burial site on Papa Westray, Orkney

Archaeologists examining the weapon said it had “many stories to tell”.

The remains of a scabbard, a sheath for the blade, were also found.

AOC Archaeology’s Andrew Morrison, Caroline Paterson and Dr Stephen Harrison suggested there was more information still to be gleaned from the finds.

In a statement, the team said: “To preserve as much evidence as possible, we lifted the whole sword and its surrounding soil in a block to be transported to the lab and forensically excavated there.

The sword’s upper and lower guards are highly decorated

“It’s so fragile we don’t even know what the underside looks like yet, so our understanding is sure to change in the coming months.

“The iron in the sword has heavily corroded, with many of the striking details only visible through x-ray.”

The excavations at Mayback revealed a number of finds, including evidence of a rare Viking boat burial, and a second grave with weapons, including a sword.

Archaeologists said the graves may be those of first-generation Norwegian settlers on Orkney.

AOC Archaeology has been working with Historic Environment Scotland on the research.

EUROPE, ROMAN, WORLD

2,000-Year-Old Pompeii Public Laundry Restored and Opened to the Public for the First Time

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2,000-Year-Old Pompeii Public Laundry Restored and Opened to the Public for the First Time


In Pompeii, the well-preserved Roman city inundated by hot volcanic gas and then covered with ash in 79 AD, experts have renovated and opened to public viewing several buildings, including a public laundry where people once washed their clothing in urine.

The buildings feature colored frescoes on the walls and mosaics on the floors featuring birds, flower vases and other scenes. Some of the buildings were damaged during World War II bombing.

The restoration of the six buildings cost about 105 million euros or about $115 million. The European Union had pledged millions to restore Pompeii, and the Italian government kicked in a lesser amount, but squabbling among bureaucrats and mismanagement meant that just a fraction had been spent by October 2015 with deadlines looming. Restorers began working around the clock to avoid losing the grants.

The United Nations had threatened to remove Pompeii from UNESCO’s World Heritage Site status because of mismanagement. But that threat appears to have been rescinded as the Italian government, under archeologist Massimo Osanna, has turned the project around in two years.

The laundry facility, estimated to be about 2,000 years old, had large tubs or baths for cleaning clothes. It also had stone basins for dyeing and a press used to iron clothing.

People collected the urine, used to wash tough stains from tunics, from public urinals. The Pompeiians dried their laundry on the roof of the facility by laying their clothes out in the sun.

Pompeii was a flourishing city entombed in volcanic ash. Many people are believed to have escaped the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but some people and many buildings, including this grand theater, were preserved in ash.

Another building that opened on Christmas Day is the Casa del Criptoportico, a luxury villa with a garden that also was restored. The ancient home features four thermals baths covered in stucco and mosaics of Bushmen.

The name Criptoportico comes from the long, covered corridor of the house. It has large windows to allow light into an adjacent sitting room, says an article in the Telegraph.

Four other homes were opened to the public on Christmas: la Casa di Paquius Proculus, la Casa del Sacerdos Amandus, la Casa di Fabius Amandio and la Casa dell’Efebo.

Pompeii, the city frozen in time by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, had been placed under the protection of the Italian government from degradation by the elements and looters, including possibly the organized-crime group, the Camorra, which Ancient Origins reported earlier this year. Numerous restoration and construction projects are underway.

The restorations of the ancient city were being carried out with a 130 million euro ($143 million) budget that was also used to produce a museum exhibit of plaster casts of some of the bodies of people frozen in their last moments of life.

Many artworks, statues, frescos and papyrus scrolls were preserved by the volcanic eruption that inundated the town, which had 2.7 million visitors in 2014.

Pompeii was a flourishing Roman city from the 6th century BC until it became preserved by the layers of ash that spewed out from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Although Pompeii was initially rediscovered at the end of the 16th century, it was only properly excavated in the 18th century.

Excavators were startled by the sexually explicit frescoes they were unearthing, so they quickly covered them over.

When excavations resumed nearly two centuries later, archaeologists found the city almost entirely intact – loaves of bread still sat in the oven, bodies of men, women, children and pets were found frozen in their last moments, the expressions of surprise and fear still etched on their faces, and the remains of meals remained discarded on the pavement.

The discovery meant that researchers could piece together exactly what life was like for the ancient Romans of Pompeii – the food they ate, the jobs they performed and the houses they lived in.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Historic Byzantine Amphora Discovered by Swimmer at the Beach in Crete

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Historic Byzantine Amphora Discovered by Swimmer at the Beach in Crete

An ancient amphora, which is a vase that was historically used to store and transport things such as wine, oil and grain was discovered by a man who was swimming at Arina Beach in Heraklion, Crete.

Admittedly, this is more likely if your holiday is in Crete than Gran Canaria, but it’s what happened to one man who had been swimming from his hotel beach.

When he got back inside, he looked at his photos and noticed something round and bobbing in the water. At first, he thought it could be a floating human head.

That would clearly be of concern, so he alerted the beach lifeguard and took a surfboard out to investigate what it was on Thursday.

In fact it was a 12th-century Byzantine amphora found by a man out for a swim

It was not a human head In fact it was a 12th-century Byzantine amphora found by a man out for a swim In fact it was an amphora, a kind of vase used to store and transport things like wine, oil or grain.

Although it was covered in shells and other debris from the sea, it was intact and is believed to date from the Byzantine period in the 12th or 13th centuries. It will be handed over to the Directorate of Antiquities, local media reported.

The amphora was found at Arina Beach by Heraklio in North Crete. Authorities warned that any historical artifacts like this had to be declared as they are property of the Greek state.

People should not move them, however, as this could damage them. Instead, they should give details of where they can be found.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Fossil of a beetle inside a lizard inside a snake: an ancient food chain

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Fossil of a beetle inside a lizard inside a snake: an ancient food chain


Paleontologists have uncovered a fossil that has preserved an insect inside a Lizard inside a snake – a prehistoric battle of the food chain that ended in a volcanic lake some 48 million years ago.

Pulled from an abandoned quarry in southwest Germany called the Messel Pit, the fossil is only the second of its kind ever found, with the remains of three animals sitting snug in one another.

Earlier excavations have revealed the fossilized stomach contents of a prehistoric horse, whose last meal was grapes and leaves, and pollen grains were identified inside a fossilized bird. Remains of insects have also been detected in a sample of fish excrement.

We have been lucky to glimpse such a primordial food chain of the snake, that ate a lizard, that had previously treated itself to a beetle, and ended up in a volcanic lake of the time. It is uncertain how the snake died.

Perhaps the snake’s body fell dead close to the shores of the lake before the waters claimed it. It had died there not more than 48 hours after its “last supper,” scientists say.

“It’s probably the kind of fossil that I will go the rest of my professional life without ever encountering again, such is the rarity of these things.” Such are the words of Dr. Krister Smith, a paleontologist at the Senckenberg Institute in Germany who took charge of the fossil analysis.

According to Dr. Smith, the almost entirely preserved snake was recovered from a plate found in the pit back in 2009, and the discovery soon turned out to be groundbreaking. Smith remarks, “we had never found a tripartite food chain–this is a first for Messel.”

Dr. Smith and Argentine paleontologist Dr. Agustín Scanferla used high-resolution computer imaging to identify the taxonomy of the snake and the lizard, however, they were unable to name the beetle, the least preserved of the three.

Palaeopython fischeri, exhibited in Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The snake, measuring some 3.4 feet in length, was identified as Palaeophython fischeri, a species which belongs to a group of tree-dwelling snakes that was able to grow to more than 6.5 feet in length and is related to today’s boas.

The preserved sample from Germany was only a juvenile, an assurance being not only the shorter length but also its food choice, the lizard. Adult boas are known to opt for bigger animals.

The lizard would have measured nearly eight inches and a clear hint for paleontologists that it was inside the snake’s body was that the snake’s ribs overlapped it.

It is an example of the now extinct species Geiseltaliellus maarius, a type of iguanian lizard that inhabited the region of what is now Germany, France, and Belgium. Messel has been the site that has provided some of the best-preserved samples of this lizard species.

What’s also interesting is that, even though lizards are known for shedding their tails when under threat, this one has kept it despite falling prey to the snake.

“Since the stomach contents are digested relatively fast and the lizard shows an excellent level of preservation, we assume that the snake died no more than one to two days after consuming its prey and then sank to the bottom of the Messel Lake, where it was preserved,” explained Dr. Smith.

Fossil of Palaeopython in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

This is a rare type of fossil, but it’s not the first instance in which a fossil has simultaneously exposed three levels of an ancient food chain. According to National Geographic, in 2008, a fossil dated at more than 250 millions of years old depicted a shark that had devoured an amphibian that had previously consumed a spiny-finned fish.

Both these findings are precious as they reveal significant details on how food chains functioned. In the case of the snake fossil, it is interesting that the lizard had eaten a beetle.

Before that, scientists didn’t know that the Messel lizard liked to dine on insects, as in previous digs they had been able to identify only remains of plants in fossilized lizard bellies. In the case of the shark, it was revealed that amphibians consumed fish before becoming a menu item to the fish itself.

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Researchers Wonder if Rich Viking Boat Burial Found in Scotland was Made for a Warrior Woman

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Researchers Wonder if Rich Viking Boat Burial Found in Scotland was Made for a Warrior Woman

A team of researchers who have been examining the horde of grave goods left in an amazing Viking boat burial have decided that the deceased individual was definitely an important person in their society.

While shedding light on the origins, diet, and social standing, the interesting mixture of artifacts has also raised new questions about who the person was. For example, archaeologists are uncertain if the grave held a man or woman.

Found near a Neolithic cairn in the Ardnamurchan peninsula in western Scotland in 2011, the Viking boat burial dates to the late 9th or early 10th century.  reports that it was the first to be found undisturbed on the British mainland and has provided some vital information on burial practices from the time. The researchers must have been delighted to unearth such a rich grave.

Some of the finds recovered from the grave (clockwise from the top left): broad-bladed axe, shield boss, ringed pin and the hammer and tongs.

Several of the goods were objects of daily life, items for cooking, working, farming and food production were all included in the grave. It also held a shield boss (domed part of a shield protecting a warrior’s hand); a whetstone from Norway, and a ringed pin used to close a burial cloak or shroud, possibly from Ireland. As the researchers wrote in their article published in the journal.

The sword (top); the sword in situ (below); the mineralized textile remains (right); detail of the decoration after conservation (left).

The burial also contained a sword, an axe, a drinking horn vessel, a broken spearhead (probably fragmented in a funeral ritual), a hammer, and some tongs – the researchers say that all these have suggest a warrior burial, likely male.

However, Oliver Harris, co-director of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project (ATP) at the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, told Seeker “There is nothing female per se in the grave, though of course there are lots of objects — sickle, the ladle, the knife, the ringed pin — that are not male either.”

The ladle, sickle, spearhead, and knife.

And with just two teeth remaining for the person’s body, the researchers cannot confirm the individual’s sex. As Harris said “The burial is probably that of a man — but as we only have the two teeth surviving, it is impossible to be definitive. So it is possible, but not likely, that this was the burial of a woman.”

It would not be unheard of for a Viking woman to have an elaborate burial however, as Dwhty has written previously for Ancient Origins about the Oseberg Viking ship burial.

Oseberg ship, Kulturhistorisk museum (Viking Ship Museum), Oslo, Norway.

It has been suggested that the middle-aged woman may have been a slave who was sacrificed to accompany the older woman. This burial also contained the remains of 13 horses, four dogs, and two oxen, probably sacrificed as well to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.

Although the damp conditions within the mound allowed for the ship and its contents to be well-preserved, the mound had been broken into by robbers and any precious metal items were taken.

Returning to the present study, the researchers completed an isotopic analysis of the teeth found in the Ardnamurchan Viking boat burial and discovered that the deceased probably grew up in Scandinavia and had to change his/her diet for about a year during childhood.

 Harris explained , “The switch in diet probably shows there was some shortage in food for a period of time leading people to eat more fish.”

The Viking’s teeth.

As for the boat itself, well, all that remained was 213 of its metal rivets; the wood decayed, though an impression left in the soil suggests that it had measured 16 feet (4.88 meters) in length. This would be consistent with the size of a small rowing boat.

Perhaps the most elaborate (and disturbing) example of Viking ship burial practices was the 10th century chronicle of the violent, orgiastic funeral of a Viking chieftain . Holy man and jurist Ahmad Ibn Fadlan described the death rites of mourning Vikings in Bulgaria who had lost their chieftain.

‘The Funeral of a Viking’ (1893) by Frank Dicksee.

After these extreme burial practices, the Vikings built an earthen mound over the burned vessel. Miller writes that archaeologists are still searching for the location of this grave.