Category Archives: RUSSIA

1,300-year-old fortress-like structure on Siberian lake continues to mystify experts

August 5, 2022 Archeology worldwide team Leave a comment

1,300-year-old fortress-like structure on Siberian lake continues to mystify experts

At first glance, Por-Bajin’s rectangular island, with its regular structure and ruined parts, looks like a foreboding fortress or jail.

what the rectangular island and its labyrinthine ruins, situated in a lake deep in Siberia, were actually used for when it was built 1,300 years ago, But it is unknown for certain.

**The mysterious island, Por-Bajin, was found in the centre of a remote lake high in the mountains of southern Siberia**

Historians and scientists are divided, but some experts believe that the isolated area may have been constructed to attract people and suggest that it was a summer palace, monastery, or astronomical observatory instead of imprisoning them.

In the Tuvan language, the name Por-Bajin is translated as “clay house,” and the island sits between the Sayan and Altai ranges, near the Mongolian border, about 3,800 km from Moscow.

The location was first discovered in 1891, and the purpose of island has still not been explained over a century later.

More in-depth research took place in 2022 with archaeologists discovering clay tablets of human feet, faded coloured drawings on the plaster of the walls, giant gates and fragments of burnt wood.

Experts say the island was built during the period of the Uighur Khaganate (744-840 AD) but it is not clear what their motive would be for constructing a fortress for in such a solitary place – as it is far from big settlements and trade routes.

The plot thickens as the way it was built, along with the construction materials use, hint at Chinese architectural tradition.

Scientists were able to use laser mapping to create a 3D image of what the 3.5 hectare plot could have been used for.

**Por-Bajin reconstruction seen from the east.**

Although it is said to be around 1,300 years old, many walls were intact and well preserved with a main structure in the inner courtyard being separated into two parts, covered by a tiled roof walkway supported by 36 wooden columns on stone bases.

Even more confusing than the debate of why it was created is the question of why it was abandoned.

**One of the tiles found at Por Bajin.**

Researches have noted the lack of heating systems on the island, despite it enduring harsh Siberian weather and being located 7,545 feet above sea level.

Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the island with Prince Albert of Monaco in 2007 and echoed the confusion.

Small yards (left) running along Por-Bajin’s walls each had a building in the center. A digital reconstruction (right) based on excavations shows that each building could have functioned as a dwelling, perhaps for monks if the site were a monastery .

‘I have been to many places, I have seen many things, but I have never seen anything of the kind,’ he said.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

The geoglyph of a 10-foot-tall Bronze Age bull in Russia is 2,000 years older than the Nazca Lines

July 24, 2022 Archeology worldwide team Leave a comment

The geoglyph of a 10-foot-tall Bronze Age bull in Russia is 2,000 years older than the Nazca Lines

Archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old etching of a cat carved into a hillside some 250 miles southeast of Lima, Peru, reports Spanish news agency EFE. The feline, which measures about 120 feet long, has wide, orb-like eyes and appears to be sunning itself.

The newly identified likeness is a Nazca Line—one of hundreds of ancient drawings created in the Peruvian desert by removing rock and soil to produce a “negative” , writes Jason Golomb for National Geographic. Other Nazca Lines depict animals including orcas, monkeys, hummingbirds and spiders, as well as geometric shapes and humanoid figures.

Dated to between 200 and 100 B.C., the geoglyph is thought to be older than any others previously discovered in the region. Workers identified the etching while remodeling a portion of the Nazca Lines Unesco World Heritage Site, reports Tiffany .

“The discovery shows, once again, the rich and varied cultural legacy of this site,” says Peru’s Ministry of Culture in a statement.

Per the statement, the image of the lounging cat was “barely visible” prior to cleaning and conservation. As the Times notes, researchers only found it after spotting signs of “something intriguing” near the Mirador Natural lookout point.

“[It] was about to disappear because it’s situated on quite a steep slope that’s prone to the effects of natural erosion,” the ministry explains.

Famed for their impressive scale and complexity, the Nazca Lines have fascinated researchers since their modern rediscovery in the 20th century.

But experts remain divided over why the Nazca civilization, which flourished in southern Peru between 200 B.C. and 600 A.D., dedicated so much time and energy to creating the massive figures.

Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe was the first to systematically study the lines, examining them from the ground in 1926. The following decade, commercial pilots provided a fuller aerial view of the glyphs; between the 1940s and ’70s, Nazca experts Paul Kosok and Maria Reiche argued that the lines fulfilled “astronomical and calendrical purposes,” per National Geographic.

More recent investigations have shifted away from Kosok and Reiche’s theories, instead positing that the lines relate to religious rituals designed to encourage rainfall and fertility. Increasingly, wrote Stephen S. Hall for National Geographic in 2022, researchers are starting to agree that “[t]hey were not made at one time, in one place, for one purpose.”

Last year, archaeologists from Japan’s Yamagata University drew on satellite imagery, fieldwork and artificial intelligence analysis to identify 143 new Nazca Lines.

According to a statement, the findings suggested that larger glyphs served as ritual sites, while smaller ones acted as location markers for travelers.

“It’s quite striking that we’re still finding new figures, but we also know that there are more to be found,” Johny Isla, Peru’s chief archaeologist for the Nazca Lines,

The Peruvian desert’s arid climate has preserved the Nazca Lines for millennia. But erosion and human activity pose significant threats to the glyphs’ survival. A single footprint or tire mark could permanently destroy the surface of these ancient lines—and, in recent years, such damage has become increasingly common.

In , Greenpeace activists smudged the surface of a Nazca Line during a demonstration calling for action on climate change, and in , a truck driver was arrested after he intentionally drove a tractor across a condor-shaped glyph.

ASIA, RUSSIA, WORLD

Bronze Age Siberian ‘Birdman’ Wore a Collar of Beaks and Skulls

July 20, 2022 Archeology worldwide team Leave a comment

Bronze Age Siberian ‘Birdman’ Wore a Collar of Beaks and Skulls

A 5,000-year-old skeleton recently unearthed at the Ust-Tartas site in Siberia’s Novosibirsk region boasts a singular adornment: a headdress consisting of 30 to 50 bird skulls and beaks likely belonging to large shore species such as cranes and herons.

As Lidia Kobeleva, a researcher at Siberia’s Novosibirsk Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, explains in a video interview with the Siberian Times, the avian creatures’ remains were “laid as if they meant to cover the neck like a collar.”

Although the unusual accessory doesn’t exactly qualify as armor, Kobeleva says it probably served a similarly protective ritual purpose.

The Siberian Times reports that the team suspects the deceased—nicknamed “the Birdman of Siberia”—was a priest or shaman. In a separate video posted by the Siberian Times, Kobeleva notes that it remains unclear how the headdress’ components were attached to each other or to a piece of fabric.

“Some of the beaks are packed separately from skulls, without a trace of head bones,” the archaeologist says. Kobeleva further points out that none of the bird beaks or skulls appear to bear the mounting holes one would need to easily weave them together.

**The 5,000-year-old skeleton was buried with a headdress or collar consisting of 30 to 50 bird beaks and skulls**

The mysterious Birdman was a member of the Odinov culture, which dominated western Siberia during the early Bronze Age.

Hunters who lived on an island surrounded by forest steppes, according to the Daily Mail’s Will Stewart and Ian Randall, the Odinov people derived their name from the Odino settlement in the basin of the nearby Ishim River and emerged out of the Eneolithic forest-steppe tradition prevalent in what is now modern-day Russia.

Prior to the Birdman’s discovery, archaeologists had excavated more than 30 burials at the Ust-Tartas site. But as Kobeleva tells the Siberian Times, none yielded finds as “impressive” as this latest one, which was unearthed alongside a second grave containing the remains of three individuals.

According to the Siberian Times, researchers identified two children aged 5 and 10 buried in the top layer of the grave.

The skeleton of a man laid to rest with a “treasure trove of artifacts” was found beneath a wooden overlay supporting the youthful pair.

**One of the artifacts found in the second grave resembles a pair of spectacles**

The most intriguing item in the hoard resembles a pair of spectacles. Made up of two bronze hemispheres and a connecting bridge, the mask-like object features what Live Science’s Mindy Weisberger describes as “circular eyeholes.” Experts believe it’s possible the gear served as part of a burial mask or head covering.

In addition to the potential glasses, researchers found five crescent-shaped polished stone pendants perhaps used for ceremonial purposes.

“Both men must have carried special roles in the society,” Kobeleva concludes. “I say so because we have been working on this site for a while and unearthed more than 30 burials.

They all had interesting finds, but nothing … was as impressive as discoveries in these two graves. We suppose both men were some kind of priests.”