Tag: ancient history

Archaeologists Keep Finding Evidence of a Mysterious Ancient Cult In Europe

Gilded belt buckles discovered across Europe have revealed a previously-unknown ancient fertility cult with ties across the continent, researchers believe.

Four bronze belt ends depicting a snake devouring a frog—thought to be a symbol of creation and/or fertility—were recently discovered in Moravia, Bohemia, Bavaria, and Hungary. Because of their near-identical shape and make, archaeologists now believe that these belt ends are evidence of an unknown pagan cult with far-reaching and diverse populations across Europe in the early Middle Ages.

“When the belt with the motif of a snake devouring a frog was discovered with the help of metal detectors at the site near Břeclav in southern Moravia, we thought it was a rare find with a unique decoration,” said lead researcher Jiří Macháček in a news release. 

“However, we later found that other nearly identical artifacts were also unearthed in Germany, Hungary and Bohemia. I realized that we were looking at a previously unknown pagan cult that linked different regions of central Europe,” the head of the Department of Archaeology and Museology at the Masaryk University Faculty of Arts said.

Macháček’s team conducted a thorough series of analyses to learn more about the buckles and their provenance, which they reported in the Journal of Archaeological Science. 

Their work involved making high-tech scans and conducting a lead isotope analysis of the buckles to determine their composition, as well as three-dimensional scans to see how closely-related the four buckles really were to one another.

According to the analysis, not only were most of the buckles made from the same wax cast, but the copper used to make them came from the same metal ore in the Slovak Ore Mountains—one of the main suppliers for this material in Europe during the seventh and eighth centuries. The 3D models suggest that the buckles came from the same workshop. 

Because of how widespread and similar the fittings are, the authors believe the belts were a way to communicate between classes and peoples. This theory upends a previously-held idea that this style of belt was only used by elites  within the Avar ethnic group—a powerful group of people who conquered southeast central Europe in the sixth century and whose empire lasted some 200 years. 

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When Did Humans Stop Being Naked?

The origins of clothing are shrouded in the challenges of preservation, yet traces of ancient textiles provide glimpses into our sartorial past. In 1913, during an Egyptian excavation, William Matthews Flinders Petrie unearthed the Tarkhan Dress, dating back 5,500 years — the oldest known garment.

Fragments from Turkey’s Çatalhöyük site reveal even older woven textiles, possibly 8,500 years old.

Delving into Dzudzuana Cave in Georgia, archaeologists discovered dyed flax fibers dating back 30,000 years, suggesting a prehistoric textile industry. The quest for evidence extends beyond fabrics to tools. In South Africa’s Sibudu Cave, a delicate needle, estimated at 61,000 years old, signifies early garment production.

However, the emergence of clothing is also deciphered through an unconventional source — lice. By analyzing DNA from head and body lice, scientists approximate clothing usage as early as 170,000 years ago.

While the evidence hints at Homo sapiens donning attire, questions persist about Neanderthals. Stone scrapers hint at their use of animal hides, possibly for draped clothing. The search for the naked truth continues, as researchers explore diverse avenues to unravel the ancient tale of clothing.

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Pagan Temple Shifts Rome’s Narrative of Rapid Conversion to Christianity

The ruins of an ancient pagan temple under a parking lot in central Italy 70 miles (112.65 km) north of Rome, sheds light on the cultural shift during the transition from Roman imperial theology to Christianity. The structure has been dated to the era of the Roman emperor Constantine, who ruled Rome between 306 and 337 AD, whose reign is marked by being the first Roman emperor to officially convert to Christianity.

The temple was found in Spello, Italy, as part of The Spello Project, an international effort to uncover the lost history of the ancient town formerly known as Hispellum. The announcement was made by Douglas Boin, a history professor at Saint Louis University, during the Archaeological Institute of America meeting in Chicago, according to a press release by Saint-Louis University.

The excavation team, led by Boin, discovered three walls of the monumental structure using underground imaging. The significance of the finding is connected to a concession made by Roman Emperor Constantine during the fourth century. In a letter inscribed in Spello’s Town Hall, Constantine allowed the townspeople to celebrate a religious festival in Spello, which had transformed into a Roman colony in 1st century BC, instead of traveling long distances.

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The Medieval Crushing of the Cathars and Sexualizing of Witches

Many Christian writers identified the gods and lesser spirits of the Greek and Roman world with demons. This ushered in the Christian practice of demonizing those they perceived as their opponents. One of those opponents to the Catholic Church was the Cathars, whose persecution set the stage for many of the horrors committed by the church – in the name of God.

Who were the Cathars?

In the 12th to 14th century, the Cathars emerged as a medieval sect, who questioned many tenets of the Catholic Church. For instance, they believed that there were two gods: one a god of good, and the other a god of evil. They also preached about poverty, and rebelled against the Catholic Church’s corruption and exploitation of the poor. As a result, they were first branded as heretics, and ultimately as devil worshippers and practitioners of witchcraft. The tales circulated about the Cathars would make Frankenstein look like a comedian. All the horrors and sexual fantasies imaginable by a Bosch or Bruegel were heaped on these miscreants, who dared to follow too closely in the steps of Jesus.

According to some medieval writers, the susceptible were lured into a religious building and introduced to the devil. Those who agreed to join his following were made to take an oath of fidelity. They vowed to kill as many children under the age of three as possible, and take their bodies to the religious building. They swore to impede sexual intercourse among married people wherever possible, and to bequeath some part of their body to the devil at their time of death. So was said by the medieval propaganda machine.

To celebrate new members, the sect supposedly ate a meal prepared from the flesh of dead children. After dinner, the devil ordered the lights out. Then, at his command, the witches engaged in orgiastic sex: men with women or men or in groups, sometimes father with daughter, mother with son, or brother with sister. When the party was over, people were given a jar of magic ointment, supposedly made from the fat of incinerated children, to rub on the tip of their walking sticks and speed them on their journey home (Almond, 98).

These were the reasons given by the Church to torture the Cathars, and confiscate, destroy, and appropriate their property, along with that of others.

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The Witch, the Dwarf and the Magic Tortilla: the Pyramid of the Magician

Nestled within the lush landscapes of the Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal is an unusual site, combining unique architecture with Mayan mythology. At the heart of this archaeological marvel stands the Pyramid of the Magician, a captivating structure that defies convention with its unique elliptical design.

This exceptional cityscape boasts a rich tapestry of history and legend, with the tale of a dwarf and a witch building the temple and weaving magic and mystique into the very stones of Uxmal.

The Magic Egg

Due to the fact the legend of the Pyramid of the Magician wasn’t documented in ancient texts the only versions of the legend we have are oral retellings that have been passed down over the years by the indigenous Maya people. Exactly how old the stories are, as well as the pyramid’s original name is unknown. There are many different versions of the story with relatively minor variations.

The most well-known and best-recorded version of the legend was told to John Lloyd Stephens, an American explorer, writer, and diplomat who made two visits to the site between 1839 and 1841. It was he who made the pyramid famous in his book, Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan. In 1840 Stephens interviewed a local Maya native and was told the following story.

The story tells how long ago where the pyramid now stands was a hut owned and lived in by an old woman, said to be a witch. This old woman one day began to mourn because she had no children.

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Who wrote the Bible?

The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world: creation, fall, redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead.

The Old Testament (which dates to 300 BC) begins with the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

The New Testament recounts the redemption of humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It finishes in the book of Revelation, with the end of history and God’s Last Judgement.

During the first 400 years of Christianity, the church took its time deciding on the New Testament. Finally, in 367 AD, authorities confirmed the 27 books that make it up.

But who wrote the Bible?

Broadly, there are four different theories.

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Fossil evidence of photosynthesis gets a billion years older

It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that the most significant event on Earth was the evolution of photosynthesis. The ability to harvest energy from light freed life from the need to scavenge energy from its environment. With this new capability, life grew in complexity and invaded new environments, ultimately reshaping the Earth.

For such a pivotal event, we know remarkably little about it. Tracing the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere suggests photosynthesis evolved at least 2.4 billion years ago, although the rise in oxygen levels turns out to be impressively complicated. Tracing the variations of present-day genes places photosynthesis’ origin at about 3 billion years ago. That timing is similar to the origin of the photosynthetic cyanobacteria, which both continue to live independently and have been incorporated into plant cells as chloroplasts.

What we don’t have is clear evidence of photosynthetic cells of similar age. A few microfossils with similarities to cyanobacteria have been identified, but it’s impossible to determine whether they were making the proteins that power photosynthesis. Now, new fossils described by a team at the University of Liège push unambiguous evidence of photosynthesis back over a billion years to 1.7 billion years ago.

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Cerne Abbas Giant: Has the mystery of the chalk hill figure been solved?

A centuries-old mystery surrounding the origins of a chalk giant hill figure has been unravelled by academics from Oxford University.

New research indicates the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset was originally carved as an image of Hercules to mark a muster station for West Saxon armies.

Speculation has long surrounded the figure, with some believing it could date back to prehistoric times.

The academics said it was reinterpreted in the 11th Century by local monks.

In 2021, tests carried out for the National Trust, which owns the site, revealed the giant had been carved in the Anglo-Saxon period and was not prehistoric, or more recent, as previously thought.

Dr Helen Gittos and Dr Thomas Morcom have been building on the discovery to uncover why the giant was created in the first place.

They explained that Hercules was well known in the Middle Ages and there was a particular spike of interest in him during the 9th Century, at a time when the area was under attack by Vikings.

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Is the 10,000-Year-Old Yonaguni Monument a Man-Made Marvel or Nature’s Art?

Nestled along the southern coast of Yonaguni, Japan, are enigmatic submerged ruins that have captured the fascination of researchers and ignited fervent debates. Believed to date back approximately 10,000 years, the origin of the Yonaguni monument remains shrouded in mystery. Hotly debated among experts, some asserting that these formations are unmistakably man-made, while others, adopting a more conservative stance, attribute their creation to the forces of natural phenomena. This intriguing archaeological site continues to be a subject of exploration, sparking curiosity and speculation about its true origins.

The unique and awe-inspiring site was discovered in 1995 by a diver who strayed too far off the Okinawa shore and was dumb-struck when he stumbled upon the sunken arrangement of monolithic blocks “as if terraced into the side of a mountain”.  The structure sparked instant controversy and attracted crowds of diving archaeologists, media and curious hobbyists, none of whom were able to ascertain its identity.

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Ancient bricks baked when Nebuchadnezzar II was king absorbed a power surge in Earth’s magnetic field

Thousands of years ago, Earth’s magnetic field underwent a significant power surge over a part of the planet that included the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia. People at the time probably never even noticed the fluctuation, but signs of the anomaly, including previously unknown details, were preserved in the mud bricks that they baked, new research has found.

When scientists recently examined bricks dating from the third to the first millennia BC in Mesopotamia — which encompassed present-day Iraq and parts of what is now Syria, Iran and Turkey — they detected magnetic signatures in those from the first millennium, indicating that the bricks were fired at a time when Earth’s magnetic field was unusually strong. Stamps on the bricks naming Mesopotamian kings enabled researchers to confirm the time range for the magnetic spike.

Their findings corresponded with a known magnetic surge called the “Levantine Iron Age geomagnetic Anomaly,” which took place between 1050 and 550 BC. It had previously been documented in artifacts from the Azores, Bulgaria and China using archaeomagnetic analysis — examining grains in pottery and ceramic archaeological objects for clues about Earth’s magnetic activity, scientists reported December 18 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It is really exciting that ancient artifacts from Mesopotamia help to explain and record key events in Earth history such as fluctuations in the magnetic field,” said study coauthor Mark Altaweel, a professor of Near East archaeology and archaeological data science at the University College London’s Institute of Archaeology.

“It shows why preserving Mesopotamia’s ancient heritage is important for science and humanity more broadly,” Altaweel told CNN in an email.

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