EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Archaeologists Just Unearthed 10,500-Year-Old Human Remains In A German Bog

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Archaeologists Just Unearthed 10,500-Year-Old Human Remains In A German Bog

Archaeologists in northern Germany have unearthed 10,000-year-old cremated bones at a Stone Age lakeside campsite that was used for spearing fish and roasting hazelnuts.

Archaeologists think this was a temporary campsite on the shore of an ancient lake that has now silted up; it was used for roasting hazelnuts and for spearing fish, and the bones were probably from someone who died nearby.

Archaeologists in northern Germany have unearthed 10,000-year-old cremated bones at a Stone Age lakeside campsite that was once used for spearing fish and roasting hazelnuts, major food sources for groups of hunter-gatherers at that time.

The site is the earliest known burial in northern Germany, and the discovery marks the first time human remains have been found at Duvensee bog in the Schleswig-Holstein region, where dozens of campsites from the Mesolithic era or Middle Stone Age (roughly between 15,000 and 5,000 years ago) have been found.

Hazelnuts were a big attraction in the area because Mesolithic people could gather and roast them, Harald Lübke, an archaeologist at the Center for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, an agency of the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation.

The campsites changed over time, the research shows. “In the beginning, we have only small hazelnut roasting hearths, and in the later sites, they become much bigger” — possibly a consequence of hazel trees becoming more widespread as the environment changed.

Archaeologists think Duvensee was a lake at that time, and that Mesolithic campsites on islands and the shore were used by hunter-gatherers who visited there in the fall to harvest hazelnuts.

The burial was found during excavations earlier this month at a site first identified in the late 1980s by archaeologist Klaus Bokelmann and his students, who found worked flints there not during a formal excavation, but during a barbecue at a house on the edge of a nearby village, Lübke said.

“Because the sausages were not ready, Bokelmann told his students that if they found anything [in the bog nearby], then he would give them a bottle of Champagne,” he said. “And when they came back, they had a lot of flint artifacts.” 

The cremated bones date from about 10,500 years ago, during the Mesolithic era. They are the first human remains found at any of the Mesolithic sites at the Duvensee bog.

Ancient lake

The burial site is near at least six Mesolithic campsites, which would have been on the shores of the ancient lake at Duvensee, Lübke said.

The first sites investigated by Bokelmann in the 1980s were on islands that would have been near the western shore of the lake, which has completely silted up over the last 8,000 years or so, and formed a peat bog, called a “moor” in Germany.

Archaeologists have discovered mats made of bark for sitting on the damp soil, pieces of worked flint, and the remains of many Mesolithic fireplaces for roasting hazelnuts, but they haven’t unearthed 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,” Lübke said.

Unlike during the later Mesolithic era, when specific areas were set aside for the burial of the dead, at this time it seemed the dead were buried near where they died, he said. Significantly, the body was cremated before its burial at the Duvensee site, like other burials of approximately the same age near Hammelev in southern Denmark, which is about 120 miles (195 kilometers) to the north. 

Only 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. In any case, “burning the body seems to be a central part of burial rituals at this time,” Lübke said.

The site where the cremated bones were found was identified in the 1980s when fragments of worked flints were found there, but it wasn’t excavated until this summer.

Changing landscape

As well as roasting hazelnuts and burning bodies — both of which are activities utilizing fire — Mesolithic people used the lakeside campgrounds for spearing fish, according to the discovery of several bone points crafted for that purpose that were found at the site.

Related: Look into the eyes of a Stone Age woman in this incredibly lifelike facial reconstruction

Flint fragments also have been found throughout the area, although flint doesn’t occur naturally there, suggesting that Mesolithic people repaired their tools and hunting weapons in this place during the annual hazelnut harvest in the fall, Lübke said.

The Duvensee bog is among the most important archaeological regions in northern Europe; dozens of Mesolithic sites have been found there since 1923, and most of them since the 1980s.

The Mesolithic sites at Duvensee are about the same age as the Mesolithic site at Star Carr in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, and some of the artifacts found there are very similar, Lübke said.

From that time until about 8,000 years ago, the Schleswig-Holstein region and Britain were connected by a now-submerged region called Doggerland, and it’s likely that Mesolithic groups would have shared technologies, he said.

The researchers now plan to carry out further excavations at the site of the Mesolithic burial, to determine what other activities took place there.

Head of Schleswig-Holstein’s State Archaeology Department, said the latest find at Duvensee is of global significance.

“It speaks to the long tradition of archaeological research in Schleswig-Holstein in the expiration of moors and wetlands,” he told Live Science in an email. “The present find advances itself and the landscape around it to something spectacular.”

But he noted that the preservation of organic finds in the Duvensee region is threatened by climatic changes that could result in heavy rain and flooding, or dry periods.

Both types of changes could threaten archaeological features in the area, so archaeologists are working to recover any finds and to develop strategies for better managing the area in the face of a changing climate, Ickerodt said.

ASIA, EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Astonished Archaeologists Find Roman Colosseum Replica in Anatolia, Turkey

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Astonished Archaeologists Find Roman Colosseum Replica in Anatolia, Turkey

While exploring the site of the ancient city of Mastaura in western Turkey last summer, archaeologists discovered something remarkable. Partially buried in the earth and further obscured beneath trees and bushes, they were able to identify the unmistakable outline of a large, circular amphitheater , built in the same distinctive shape as the famed Colosseum in Rome.

Initial excavations quickly confirmed the truth. Hidden in an area currently occupied by olive and fig groves, the archaeological team from Adnan Menderes University in Aydin, Turkey had indeed found the remains of a Colosseum replica, which had been constructed to host entertainment spectacles during a time when Anatolia (modern Turkey) was a part of the Roman Empire.

Like its renowned counterpart in the empire’s capital city, the newly found Colosseum replica would also have hosted bloody battles that pitted man-against-man, man-against-beast, and animal-against-animal.

Amazingly, the Colosseum replica was found to be largely intact, protected from decay and destruction by its earthen and vegetative cover.

The ruins of Roman amphitheaters have been found in Turkish territory before. But only traces of these ancient structures remain, due to natural erosive forces and the ravages of looters.

Turkey’s Colosseum Replica

“There is no previous example of such an amphitheater in Anatolia and its immediate surroundings,” declared archaeologist Sedat Akkurnaz , the Mastaura excavation team leader. “It is the only example that has survived in this very solid way.”

“Most of the amphitheatre is under the ground,” he continued. “The sections under the ground are very well preserved. It is solid as if it was just built.”

Searching through the stadium’s subterranean sections, the archaeologists found many structurally sound and well-preserved rooms, which would have been occupied by gladiators, important guests, venue administrators, and event planners.

Arched entryways and vaulted ceilings revealed an indisputable link to the signature construction style of Roman architects , who set standards that loyal provincial authorities did their best to emulate.

The circular design of the Mastaura amphitheater is relatively unique. Most Roman amphitheaters were built in a half-moon or semi-circular shape, but it seems the architects of this particular structure were anxious to demonstrate their fealty to the classic design principles established by the builders of the Colosseum in Rome in the first century AD.

The dimensions of this long-lost building are quite impressive. It measures approximately 330 feet (100 meters) in diameter and features walls that are 50 feet (15 meters) tall at their highest points. While precise calculations of seating capacity are difficult to obtain, Akkurnaz estimates that the amphitheater could have held between 15,000 and 20,000 people when it was fully packed.

This is dwarfed by the 50,000 to 70,000 seat capacity of the Colosseum in Rome, but would have been perfectly suitable for the less densely populated regions of Anatolia.

The Decline Of The Roman Empire And The Colosseum Replica

The cascade of troubles that hit the Romans and the Anatolians in the third century AD included barbarian invasions, civil warfare and unrest, peasant rebellions, and the Antonine Plague of measles or smallpox that swept across Roman lands and left millions of dead bodies in its wake.

This confluence of factors, plus political mismanagement in general, plunged the Empire into a prolonged economic depression that caused a major decline in the fortunes of the cities Anatolia and the province of Asia in particular. This region of the Empire never again came close to matching its peak prosperity, and in the fourth century it was divided up into multiple smaller provinces.

The amphitheater at Mastaura was obviously constructed with the expectation that the good times would continue. Given the economic troubles that beset the region sometime shortly after its completion, this grand edifice may have sat empty and unused for much of the time, since the spectacles it was designed to host would have been too costly for financially-strapped promoters to sponsor. In the economically challenged post-Severan era, this newly built structure may have been dismissed as wasteful expenditure and a sign of Roman decadence.

Preservation Work to Continue in the Coming Months

During the remainder of 2022, the archaeologists who unearthed the Mastaura amphitheater will begin conservation and preservation work on its most vulnerable sections.

After that process is complete, Akkurnaz and his team will launch a series of geophysical surveys at the site, to gain more information about what the structure looks like underground.

In addition to the support they’re receiving from the local government of the nearby town of Nazilli, the archaeologists are also cooperating closely with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism on this important excavation project.

ASIA, MONGOLIA, WORLD

Archeologists find ancient mummy approximately 1,500 years old in Mongolia

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Archeologists find ancient mummy approximately 1,500 years old in Mongolia

Remains of suspected female of Turkik origin found in at an altitude of 2,803 metres in the Altai Mountains.

‘The finds show us that these people were very skilled craftsmen.’

The ancient human remains are wrapped in felt but the excavation is being hailed as the first complete Turkik burial found in Central Asia. B.Sukhbaatar, researcher at Khovd Museum, said: ‘This person was not from elite, and we believe it was likely a woman, because there is no bow in the tomb. 

‘Now we are carefully unwrapping the body and once this is complete the specialists will be able to say more precisely about the gender.’

In the mummy’s grave archeologists found – alongside the human remains – a saddle, bridle, clay vase, wooden bowl, trough, iron kettle, the remains of entire horse, and four different ‘Dool’ (Mongolian clothes).

‘Now we are carefully unwrapping the body and the specialists could say more precisely about the gender.’

There were also pillows, a sheep’s head and felt travel bag in which were placed the whole back of a sheep, goat bones and small leather bag for the cup.

He said: ‘It is the first complete Turkik burial at least in Mongolia – and probably in all Central Asia. This is a very rare phenomenon. These finds show us the beliefs and rituals of Turkiks. 

‘We can see clearly that the horse was deliberately sacrificed. It was a mare, between four and eight years old. Four coats we found were made of cotton.  

Elaboated embroidery on the bag and a saddle – all very good preserved.

‘An interesting thing we found is that not only sheep wool was used, but also camel wool. We can date the burial by the things we have found there, also the type of hat. It gives us a preliminary date of around the 6th century AD.’

Archeologists from the city museum in Khovd were alerted to the burial site by local herdsmen. The finds will help form a deeper understanding of the native Turks in ancient Mongolia. 

In the mummy’s grave archeologists found – alongside the human remains – a saddle, bridle, clay vase, wooden bowl, trough, iron kettle, the remains of entire horse, and four different ‘Dool’ (Mongolian clothes).

‘The grave was located 2803 meters above sea level,’ said B.Sukhbaatar. ‘This fact and the cool temperatures helped to preserve the grave. The grave was three metres deep.

‘The finds show us that these people were very skilled craftsmen. Given that this was the grave of a simple person, we understand that craft skills were rather well developed.’

The Altai Mountains unite Siberia, in Russia, and Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. 

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Child’s bones buried 40,000 years ago solve long-standing Neanderthal mystery

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Child’s bones buried 40,000 years ago solve long-standing Neanderthal mystery

This reconstruction shows the Neanderthal child’s burial at La Ferrassie.

We don’t know whether it was a boy or a girl. But this ancient child, a Neanderthal, only made it to about two years of age.

This short life, lived about 41,000 years ago, was uncovered at a famous archaeological site in southwestern France, called La Ferrassie. The remains of several Neanderthals have been found there, including the most recent discovery, the child, known only as La Ferrassie 8.

When the ancient remains were first found – most at various stages of the early 20th century – archaeologists had assumed the skeletons represented intentional burials, with Neanderthals laying their departed kin to rest under the earth.

Nonetheless, in contemporary archaeology, doubts now swirl around the question of whether Neanderthals did indeed bury their dead like that, or whether this particular aspect of funerary rites is a uniquely Homo sapiens custom.

In part, the asking of these questions links back to the archaeological techniques and record-keeping used in the past, as the antiquated methods used by archaeologists and anthropologists from the early 20th century (and even earlier) mean we can’t always be entirely confident in their findings.

With such a mystery on their mind, a team led by researchers from Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in France has now conducted a thorough re-evaluation of La Ferrassie 8’s ancient remains, which have now been kept in the museum for almost 50 years after being discovered between 1970 and 1973.

“The discovery and context of this skeleton has generally been regarded as poorly documented, but in fact this deficiency stems from a lack of the necessary processing of the information and materials from La Ferrassie related to the penultimate excavation phase (1968–1973),” the researchers write in their new paper(opens in new tab).

“Indeed, a huge amount of data remained unassessed prior to our current study.”

In the new work, the researchers reviewed the notebooks and field diaries used by the original excavation team, as well as analysing La Ferrassie 8’s bones. They also performed new excavations and analyses at the La Ferrassie cave shelter site where the child’s remains were found.

The results of their multi-disciplinary approach suggests that – despite the substandard nature of previous research into La Ferrassie 8’s purported burial – the old conclusions were correct: the child was buried.

“The combined anthropological, spatial, geochronological, taphonomic, and biomolecular data analysed here suggest that a burial is the most parsimonious explanation for LF8,” the authors explain.

“Our results show that LF8 is intrusive within an older (and archaeologically sterile) sedimentary layer. We propose that Neandertals intentionally dug a pit in sterile sediments in which the LF8 child was laid.”

In reaching this conclusion, the team confirmed that the well-preserved bones were laid to rest in an unscattered manner, remaining in their anatomical position, with the head raised higher than the rest of the body, even though the lay of the land was inclined at a different angle (suggesting a contrived elevation by Neanderthal hands).

Further, there were no animal marks on them, which the team consider another probable sign of a prompt, intended burial. Especially when compared to the weathered state of various animal remains found in the vicinity.

“The absence of carnivore marks, the low degree of spatial disturbance, fragmentation, and weathering suggest that they were rapidly covered by sediment,” the researchers explain.

“We cannot find any natural (i.e. non-anthropic) process that could explain the presence of the child and associated elements within a sterile layer with an inclination that does not follow the geological inclination of the stratum. In this case, we propose that the body of the LF8 child was laid in a pit dug into the sterile sediment.”

It’s not the first study in recent times to claim new evidence of Neanderthals burying their dead, and it likely won’t be the last.

The French team say it’s time in a new-and-improved analytical standards were brought to bear on the varying skeletal remains of La Ferrassie 1 through to 7, giving us an updated assessment of how they too were interred.

Then, maybe, with all said and done, these very old souls might finally get some rest.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Ancient Cave Found in Egypt with Unique Predynastic Rock Carvings

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Ancient Cave Found in Egypt with Unique Predynastic Rock Carvings

The ancient cave was found in a mountainous area in Northern Sinai. The rock carvings are of a type not seen before in the region.

The cave where the rock art was discovered. Inset: One of the sections of rock carvings.

An archaeological mission from the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry discovered an ancient cave featuring a unique and diverse collection of carvings at Wadi al-Zulma, North Sinai.

The head of ministry’s Egyptian Antiquities Sector, Ayman Ashmawy, explained that the archaeological cave is located at the beginning of one of Wadi al-Zulma’s tributaries within a mountainous area of limestone that is difficult to reach – about 90 kilometers southeast of the city of al-Qantara Sharq, and 60 kilometers east of the Suez Canal.

The ancient cave was found in a mountainous area in Northern Sinai.

First of its Kind in Sinai

The carved images found in Northern Sinai are different from those found elsewhere in the Peninsula. They are more akin to bas-relief and the figures tend to be projected out of the surface of the cave walls.

The rock art found elsewhere in the area, such as those at al-Zaranji were made by chipping away the rocky surface of the caverns and apply pigments to color the engravings. 

Ayman Ashmawy, told Egypt Independent that the newly explored ‘cave features an utterly unique assortment of carvings unlike those from the South Sinai valleys’. There are a great many more engravings than in the al-Zaranji cave.

The Director of Sinai Antiquities and head of the mission, Dr Hisham Hussein told Egypt in that ‘most of the scenes were carved along the walls of the inner cave and depict animals such as donkeys, camels, deer, mule and mountain goats’.

These enigmatic images could provide invaluable insights into the prehistory of Egypt.

According to a Tourism and Antiquities Ministry statement, the cave is 15 meters deep and 20 meters high. The ceiling is made of limestone, and the cave is filled with large amounts of animal waste.

Ashes found inside the cave indicate it’s continuous usage by locals as shelter, where they might have stayed with their flocks during rain or winter.

ASIA, JORDAN, WORLD

Desert Kites: Mysterious geoglyphs built thousands of years ago

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Desert Kites: Mysterious geoglyphs built thousands of years ago

During the 1920s, pilots of the Royal Air Force who flew over the deserts of Israel, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, saw some strange line shapes scattered all over the area.

They named them “Desert Kites”. Seen from above the lines resembled flying kites. This was a new discovery for the western world, but the local Bedouin population already knew about them for thousands of years. The natives called them “Works of the Old Men”.

Desert Kites: Mysterious geoglyphs built thousands of years ago

Most of the kites are composed of two stone walls with variable thickness and height, that are wider at the beginning and get narrow at the end, forming a V shape.

The length of the walls is usually a few hundred meters, but can stretch up to a few kilometers The narrow opening at the end of the funnel leads to an enclosure or a pit.

The enclosures have many shapes and sizes: they can be circular, triangular or star-shaped and range from a few hundred square meters to more than ten hectares.

There are small stone cells with higher walls joined to the external part of the enclosure. They are circular or square in shape. Some kites have one cell, but their number can go up to several dozen.

Stone walls of a desert kite
Circle enclosures with cells on the outside
Desert kite in Wadi Eshel

It is commonly accepted that the stone kites were used for hunting, to gather the animals together, making them an easier prey. Few years ago, a team of archeologists found a big deposit of Persian gazelle bones dating from 4th millennium BC, from a site in northeastern Syria.

This provides a direct evidence that the kites were used for hunting gazelles in post-Neolithic times. The Kites, organized in chains that facing the same direction, lie along migration routes that ran from Syria to Saudi Arabia. This suggests that the people who created them had good knowledge of animal behavior.

The majority of kites were built between 4000 BC and 2000 BC, although some of the oldest structures are dated as far back as 8000 BC.

Desert kite in Wadi Eshel

However, recent access to high-resolution satellite images has revealed even more kites exist than previously believed. They are spread over a huge area that extends from the Arabian Peninsula to the Aral Sea.

This new discovery deepens the mystery of the “kites phenomenon”. Solving this puzzle (according to mainstream archeology) means finding the answer to some fundamental questions as animal economy, the disappearance of species, sustainable development and even the development of urbanism.

Satellite view of a desert kite in the Jordanian Harrat showing very long stone walls.
DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER GIANT DEFENSIVE MINEFIELD FROM THE ROMAN IRON AGE

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Archaeologists discover giant defensive minefield from the roman iron age

Archaeologists have unearthed a massive structure in Lolland that is believed to have been used to ward off an attacking army back in the Roman Iron Age.  So far, 770 meters of the structure have been detected.

In 2022 a team of archaeologists from the Museum Lolland-Falster in Denmark discovered a vast ancient “hole belt”: a defense land work featuring over 1000 long lines and rows of small holes dug into the ground.

According to archaeologist and Museum Inspector, Bjørnar Mage, talking to TV2 EAST , this hole belt was designed to slow down hostile advancing armies from the south coast of Lolland and it was built during the reign of the Roman Empire in Europe, and while 770 meters of the belt have been measured, museum staff estimate it may be up to twice as big.

The hole belt is thought to have been located about a kilometer from the coast between two impassable wetlands meaning attacking enemies advancing into Lolland, would have been seriously hampered, says Bjørnar Måge.

Since 2022, two smaller excavations have studied the hole belt but this recent excavation was the first to illustrate how large this ancient military feature actually was, and revealed that it had built at one time in a major constriction project.

The massive structure may have stretched 1.5 km across Lolland.

Tomb of the Pagan Prince

The hole belt might have been built in the days leading up to a major battle , but maybe it was a reaction to a concrete threat where you “wanted to make sure you had time to defend yourself against an advancing enemy,” says Bjørnar Mage in a Nyheder article. And this apparent immediacy in the building of the structure is supported in the fact no evidence has been discovered that the belt was ever maintained after its construction and it appears that it had been left to lapse.

So far, three-hole belts have been found to the east of the main belt, but a number have been found in Jutland. However, this belt is much wider than any of the Jutland examples.

Bjørnar Måge believes the building of the hole belt required “considerable strength and hinterland” and that it was beyond the abilities of the average local farmer, leading him to suspect that “a local warlord or prince” was behind the construction.” He said it takes “time and a lot of manpower” to build such a large defense force and this is only something that would make sense if there was a “major man behind it.”

Perhaps lending weight to this line of thinking, not far from the hole belt in the town of Hoby near Dannemare, archaeologists discovered a stone built tomb dating from the Roman Iron Age but the researchers have not yet been able to associate the two sites yet.

Hundreds of markers map out the elements of the hole belt.

Imagine For A Second, The Horror Of Being Trapped In A Hole Belt

The coasts of Denmark during the late Iron Age were invaded by armies from Norway and Eastern Europe but no historical records exist pertaining to military activities in the north of the country, but the belt indicates a major battle was prepared for.

Putting ancient hole belts in context, Bjørnar Måge compares them with “modern minefields” designed specifically to delay advancing enemy forces. According to writers J.E. and H.W. Kaufmann’s 2018 Classical to Medieval Fortifications in the Lands of the Western Roman Empire, “Caesar’s Lilies”, were Roman-built ditches about 1 meter (3.3ft) deep containing sharpened wooden spikes and Bjørnar Måge, said Viet Cong soldiers used “ Caesar’s lilies” against American soldiers as recently as the Vietnam War.

Example of Roman Lilia at Rough Castle, Antonine Wall.

The archaeologists in Denmark believe the hole belt was designed to delay advancing armies so that the native army could get into the most tactically suitable positions, from where they could “shoot the attackers with arrows from towers” arranged behind the hollow belt.

But at this time no archaeological remains of such towers have been found, says Bjørnar Mage, however, towers were not needed to seriously hamper an advancing Roman army, for example:

Imagine you are on the front line of a Roman army. You’ve just spent eight months advancing into Denmark, sleepless and weary having defended your camp from native guerrilla attacks every night. Your sword is blunted chopping the skeletons of Denmark’s indigenous peoples and you are standing amidst your 6000 brothers in arms when you are deafened with the war cry “We Are Legion” as your field commander signals you to advance into the hole belt.

Tip-toeing around thousands of wooden spikes and deep pits your advance is slow, but you are almost at the other side and stop to take a breath, and to prepare your psychology for another mass-slaughter.

But then, your accumulated worst fears arrive in one nightmarish moment as the Danish infantry begin to thin, making way for their special forces who ride forward through the morning mist: 200 mounted cavalries armed with bows who fringe the hole belt.

Realizing their destiny, panic spreads among your men and most are reduced to whimpering as the sky quickly darkens with thousands of heavy oak, iron-tipped arrows, and for the last time your thoughts turn to your family and the swaying wheat fields from whence you came, and to where you will now return, courtesy of the hole belt.

Unfortunately, due to its environmental circumstances, the Lolland hole belt is rapidly disappearing and Bjørnar Mage said that if the site had been left for as little as five more years “there would probably be nothing left” and he says only the bottom five centimeters of the belt have been preserved in many areas of the structure.

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Built Before Stone Henge: Mount Pleasant One of Five Known Mega Henges in Southern England

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Built Before Stone Henge: Mount Pleasant One of Five Known Mega Henges in Southern England

Mega Henges: Many of us were taught that the Stone Age was filled with hairy cavemen who didn’t have a lot going for them. In fact, the many henges around England attest to the building skills of Neolithic people and at about 2500BC, just before Europeans arrived in Britain, even had a big construction boom.

There are five mega henges in southern England including a henge at the Mount Pleasant Neolithic site near Dorchester, Dorset.

It was built before Stonehenge and consists of a large circle where people went for rituals with large stones and perhaps a wooden structure in the center.

Mount Pleasant Henge dig in the 1970s

A wooden fence made from tree trunks surrounded the henge as well as a bank and a ditch according to theguardian.com. The size of the round concentric henge is enormous, almost sixty two thousand square feet and it was built entirely by people using deer antlers as digging tools.

The Mount Pleasant Neolithic site was first excavated in the early 1970s and researchers believe the time to build the site took anywhere from thirty five years to one hundred and twenty five years with multiple descendants taking over the work but now they suggest it was built WITHIN 35 years.

Mount Pleasant Henge crop marks.

According to lead researcher and lead author of a research paper Tempo of a Mega-henge: A New Chronology for Mount Pleasant, Dorchester, Dorset found at cambridge.org, Susan Greaney of Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion remarked, “The building of Mount Pleasant would have involved a huge number of people digging out the enormous ditches with simple tools like antler picks.

Stone age antler pick found at Mount Pleasant

This was right at the end of the stone age, just before people came from the continent with metal goods, new types of pottery, new styles of burial and so on…” Because dating objects was no where near as effective in 1970, archeologists have been able to use radiocarbon dating to determine that it was probably built in the 26th century BC.

The other mega henges in southern England include Marden Henge, the largest found to date at forty acres which was surrounded by a fence of ten foot tall tree trunks.

Merden Henge

According to nationalgeographic.com, Jim Leary, director of the archaeology field school at the University of Reading, partnered with Historic England and launched a three-year excavation of Marden Henge in 2022.

Artifacts such as an early Bronze Age burial, arrowheads for exhibition rather than hunting and the remains of over thirteen pigs which were most likely cooked and eaten there were discovered. The burial was that of a teenager interred with an amber necklace about four thousand years a

 Tells us of a mega henge discovered about two miles from Stonehenge and fifteen times larger beneath the banks of Durrington Walls.

In the foreground is the southern wall of Durrington Walls, a prehistoric site near to Durrington in Wiltshire. In the background of the image is the western wall of the site.

The stones stood almost fifteen feet tall before they were damaged over four thousand years ago when they were buried to form earthen embankments to surround the site. The henge is surrounded by a fifty eight foot long ditch that takes up a mile of land around the henge.

According to megalithic.co.uk, a stone circle in Wiltshire was discovered in 1999 and owns the title for the largest henge circle in the world. The surrounding embankment is almost a full mile long and the inside area is just over twenty eight acres. It is estimated that it took 1.5 million man hours to construct.

Silbury Hill in Avebury, while not a henge in the traditional way, is a part of the Stonehenge complex and is believed to have been built around 2400BC.

It is an artificial mound equal to the size of the Egyptian pyramids but no one knows its original purpose. There are no burials and the mound is just dirt and chalk.

More materials were added over the years adding to the height and the ditch enclosing the mound shows evidence of backfilling and cutting.

On three separate occasions the hill was excavated with tunnels running horizontally and vertically with nothing of interest found.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

2,000-yr-old Item Found Buried with Woman Looks Like a Smartphone

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2,000-yr-old Item Found Buried with Woman Looks Like a Smartphone

A tomb recently excavated in Siberia revealed what at first appeared to be an ancient iPhone on the 2,100-yr-old remains of a woman dubbed ‘Natasha’ by researchers. Found alongside her skeleton, to the amazement and excitement of all, was an item that looked suspiciously like an iPhone.

It’s not, of course — it’s a belt buckle — but the object bears a striking and astonishing similarity to a iPhone. It’s black, and shaped rather like a check book (remember those?) and has beautiful, precious stones laid into its surface. And it was no doubt just as important to the woman who wore it as our smartphones are to us .

It was a fashionable ancient belt buckle made of gemstone jet with inlaid decorations of turquoise, carnelian and mother-of-pearl.

The find was part of a larger excavation, dubbed the “Russian Atlantis.” Skeletons and objects like ‘Natasha’s’ belt buckle date back more than 2,000 years, archaeologists say.

The Siberian Times reported recently that the site was made accessible to archaeologists and other researchers when a massive reservoir was drained during the summer, so researchers could get a look at the relics resting there. The belt buckle is just one of many interesting — and ancient — items found at this “Russian Atlantis.”

The buckle’s precious stones include mother of pearl and turquoise, and even part of an ancient Chinese coin has been carved into it. According to Dr. Pavel Leus, one of the archaeologists on the dig, “Natasha’s burial with a Hunnu-era ‘iPhone’ remains one of the most interesting (items) at this site.”  He added, “Hers was the only belt decorated with Chinese Wizhu coins, which helped us to date it.”

Other ancient graves rest close to ‘Natasha,’ including one whom the archaeologists have dubbed ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ The items with which she was buried indicate that she was a designer who worked in leather.

A third set of remains belonged to a woman who was a weaver, researchers confirmed; she had a wooden spindle, inside a sewing kit placed with her.

It’s these kinds of objects, rather like ‘Natasha’s’ so called ‘iPhone,’ that give researchers the clues they need to date the remains accurately.

The site is usually under more than 55 feet of water, according to the Siberian Times. Scientists, historians and archaeologists know they must beat the clock because the reservoir will indeed fill with water again, sooner or later.

They are working feverishly to recover and excavate these rare and historic artifacts before that happens.Elsewhere at the ‘Atlantis’ site another excavation is taking place, called Terezin, containing 32 graves.

Dr. Marina Kilunovskaya, of the St. Petersburg Institute of Material Culture, acknowledged how rich the site is in an interview with the Siberian Times.

“We are incredibly lucky to have found these burials of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by (ancient) grave robbers.” The burial sites date as far back as the Bronze Age, during the reign of Genghis Khan.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists discover mummies with solid-gold tongues in Egypt

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Archaeologists discover mummies with solid-gold tongues in Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered several ancient mummies with solid-gold tongues in their mouths.

The bizarre finding was made when preserved corpses were unearthed at the Quweisna necropolis in the central Nile Delta, about 40 miles north of Cairo, dating between 300 BCE and 640 BCE.

Experts investigating tombs at the site found several mummies with gold chips shaped like human tongues in their mouths, said Dr. Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Archeology, in a press release.

Experts believe the real tongues of the dead were cut out during the embalming process and replaced with a piece of gold resembling the organ so that the deceased could speak to Osiris, the ancient Egyptian “Lord of the Underworld.”

Gold chips shaped like human tongues were recovered at an ancient Egyptian cemetery at Quweisna near Cairo.
Experts believe the real tongues of the deceased were replaced with gold ones during the mummification process so the departed could speak to the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris.
A human skeletal is seen at the burial site that had been in use during three different historic periods.

According to Waziri, several mummies were discovered with gold on the bone directly beneath the linen wraps used during the mummification process.

The mummies were said to be in a poor state of preservation.

Also found at the ancient cemetery were golden chips fashioned into scarab beetles and lotus flowers, as well as funerary amulets, pottery, glues and tar used in the embalming process, the remains of wooden coffins in the human form and several copper nails.

The necropolis at Quweisna first was discovered in 1989, leading to several rounds of excavations over the past three decades.

Archaeologists also found gold chips shaped into scarab beetles and lotus flowers.
Funerary ornaments were recovered inside the tombs dating back between 300 BCE and 640 BCE.
Quweisna was first discovered in 1989, and experts recently unearthed an extension of the cemetery complex.

The golden-tongued mummies were found in a recently uncovered extension of the cemetery, which contained cadavers that were laid to rest during three different historic periods.

Each of the burial levels displayed evidence of different rituals and various ways of laying the mummies to rest, said Dr. Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Egyptian archeology sector at the Supreme Council of Archeology.

This is not the first time that mummies adorned with precious metals have been discovered in Egypt.

In 2022, a 2,00-year-old skull with a tongue of gold was discovered at the Taposiris Magna site near Alexandria.

In 2022, archeologists dug up a 2,000-year-old skull with a tongue-shaped gold chip in its gaping mouth at a site near the city of Alexandria known as Taposiris Magna, which means “great tomb of Osiris.”