Tag: archaeology

Archaeologists find 3,200-year-old ‘cursed tablet’ that features earliest inscription of God’s name – which was used to put evil spells on people

An ancient postage stamp-sized tablet could bear the earliest inscription of the Hebrew name for God: Yahweh.

International archaeologists believe the small folded sheet of lead found in the West Bank was created at least 3,200 years ago and features text calling on God to curse anyone who breaks their word.

If confirmed by future research, the discovery would make it nearly 2,000 years older than the previous find – The Mesha Stele slab, which dates back to 840 BC.

The team translated the 48 letters to read: ‘Cursed, cursed, cursed — cursed by Yahweh.’

The tablet was found at the Biblical Mount Elba, said to be in the Promised Land, and could feature writing older than any known Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel. 

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7000-YEAR-OLD PERISHABLE ARTIFACTS PRESERVED BY ICE ARE REVEALED IN ANCIENT VOLCANIC LANDSCAPE

Archaeologists say an undiscovered trove of ancient, perishable artifacts has been revealed by the thawing of ice in northern British Columbia, Canada, according to new research.

The discovery of the ancient tools, some from as early as 7000 years ago, is unique, given that many are composed of materials that otherwise would not have been preserved in warmer climates.

From crude containers made from tree bark and animal hide to ice picks and hand axes made from bone and obsidian, the discoveries were made near Canada’s Mount Edziza Provincial Park in 2019, based on a study published earlier this year.

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Unexpected Denisovan Fossil Location Reveals More 

In a surprising turn of events, Denisovan fossils have emerged in an unexpected location, challenging established notions of their habitat. Archaeologists recently uncovered a 160,000 to 130,000-year-old Denisovan tooth in the remote Annamite Mountains of northern Laos, far from the previously identified Siberian cave. This finding unveils a new chapter in the Denisovan story, showcasing their adaptability to diverse environments. These archaic humans, identified solely through DNA until now, not only endured the freezing climes of southern Siberia and adapted to high altitudes in Tibet but also thrived in the tropical caves of Laos—a feat accomplished a staggering 100,000 years earlier than modern humans.

The significance of this discovery extends beyond the individual tooth. The meticulous analysis of the enamel, lacking wear and tear, points to a young Denisovan girl aged between three and a half and eight and a half years. Despite the scarcity of Denisovan fossils, this solitary tooth challenges assumptions about their geographical range. While drawing conclusions from a lone find is risky, the revelation underscores the richness of surprises awaiting discovery in Southeast Asia’s fossil record. The Denisovans’ ability to cross significant biogeographic barriers, like Wallace’s Line, raises intriguing questions about their capabilities and interactions with other human species. The complexity of these interbreeding events, revealed through advanced genetic analyses, reshapes our understanding of the Denisovans’ place in the human family tree.

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Toxicology Identifies Cannabis in the Bones of Medieval Italians

Archaeologists excavating in a 17th-century hospital crypt in Milan, Italy, recovered the skeletons of nine people. Using tools of toxicology, they have now identified “the first archaeological evidence” of THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, in human bones from the Modern Age.

The cannabinoids from cannabis, such as tetrahydrocannabinol [THC], one of the psychoactive properties associated with the plant, are stored in various tissues in the body, including hair and bones. A 2013 a study published in the journal “Drug and Alcohol Dependence,” found that THC can be detected in human bones “several weeks” after the last cannabis use. However, the associated detection technologies have changed – a lot – over the last decade.

The exact mechanisms of how cannabinoids are stored in bones, and how long they remain detectable, varies from person to person, and greatly depends on frequency of use, dosage, and individual metabolism. Bones, essentially act like a reservoir for cannabinoids, and their detection can be used in forensic and clinical settings to assess past cannabis use. But now, a team of researchers have identified THC in the 17th century bones of people buried under a hospital in Milan, Italy.

In a new study, Dr. Gaia Giordano at the University of Milan said that she her colleagues excavated and tested the skeletons of nine people from a 17th century crypt at Milan’s Ca’ Granda hospital. The bone samples were powdered, separated and purified, before being liquified and subjected to mass spectrometry, to identify the chemical components.

The results were subsequently analyzed using the tools of toxicology, the study of chemical substances in living organisms including humans. Toxicologists analyze how substances are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, excreted, and their toxic effects. Whether eaten or inhaled, cannabinoids are trapped and preserved after being absorbed into the bloodstream, and they are ultimately stored in bone tissue.

The team identified THC and cannabidiol (CBD) molecules within the thigh bones of a young man and middle-aged woman, who were both buried between 1638 AD and 1697 AD.

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Why Did Homo Sapiens Take So Long to Leave Africa?

The lingering question of why modern humans took considerable time to migrate from Africa finds new dimensions in recent discoveries. Contrary to the conventional narrative, the roots of our species may extend much further back than previously thought. Fossils unearthed in Morocco challenge established timelines, suggesting early Homo sapiens roamed Africa 100,000 years earlier than believed. These findings, in the Jebel Irhoud cave, introduce complexity to the linear migration narrative, indicating a dispersed and diverse human presence across the continent. Anthropologists, grappling with the definition of Homo sapiens, acknowledge the challenges posed by these ancient remains.

The Moroccan specimens, around 300,000 years old, display both modern and primitive traits, prompting debates on the fluidity of human evolution. While some scientists question the classification, others argue for a broader view, emphasizing the continuous and branching nature of our evolutionary lineage. This discovery not only challenges preconceptions but also underscores the intricate tapestry of human evolution in Africa, where diverse populations coexisted, thrived, or faded away. The story of our origins remains a captivating enigma, with each revelation adding layers to the narrative, reshaping our understanding of the deep roots of Homo sapiens across the vast expanse of Africa.

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Vast Anglo-Saxon Pagan Temple Discovered in the Shadow of Sutton Hoo

Last year, archaeologists and community groups in Suffolk, England, unearthed the remains of a 1,400-year-old structure. Now, excavations have determined that the large timber hall was a Pre-Christian cultic temple, associated with Sutton Hoo.

Post holes from the mysterious structure were found last year by researchers from the Rendlesham Revealed community archaeology project, which is an ongoing investigation of the Deben valley. The discovery was made in Rendlesham, near Sutton Hoo, the legendary site where two magnificent Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries, in Suffolk, England.

Suffolk Councillor Melanie Vigo di Gallidoro, Deputy Cabinet Member for Protected Landscapes and Archaeology, told Suffolk News that “over 200 volunteers from the local community were involved this year, bringing the total number of volunteers to over 600 for the three-year fieldwork program.” The member groups included the Suffolk Family Carers, Suffolk Mind, and also primary school children from Rendlesham, Eyke and Wickham Market.

Professor Christopher Scull, who led Suffolk County Council’s recent dig, said last year’s discovery of the “large timber hall” at Rendlesham, is “remarkable.” He added that previous excavations in this area identified an Anglo-Saxon settlement and royal hall, which were founded by the first Kings of East Anglia in the 6th century AD.

Measuring 10 meters [32.81 feet] long and 5 meters [16.4 feet] wide, the researchers determined that the structure is “unusually high and robustly built for its size” and that it was constructed for “a special purpose.”  Professor Scull said its dimensions are similar to buildings elsewhere in England, “that are seen as temples or cult houses.” Therefore, the site may have been used for “Pre-Christian worship by the early Kings of the East Angles,” concluded Scull.

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Archaeologists Discover Vast, Complex Prehistoric Society That Rewrites History

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of a highly complex prehistoric society in Central Europe that thrived in a region experts previously believed was abandoned in 1600 BC. This sophisticated society was one of the “major cultural centers of southern Europe” and exerted “regional scale influences across the continent and into the Mediterranean,” they report in a new study. 

The Pannonian Basin is a region that centers on modern-day Hungary and touches upon multiple nations in Central Europe. Thousands of years ago, Bronze Age humans settled there and built a complex and influential society that lasted for centuries before it was mysteriously abandoned in 1600 BC. Ancient sites examined by experts show signs of depopulation over several decades, leading to the theory of a “regional scale collapse” and a relatively “abrupt end” for this prehistoric social order. However, the authors of a paper published this month in PLOS One write, based on a remote survey and excavations “a fully opposite trajectory can be identified–increased scale, complexity and density in settlement systems and intensification of long-distance networks.” Rather than disappear, ancient people adapted. 

“In many ways it provides a missing link,” lead author Barry Molloy of University College Dublin told Motherboard in an email. “We know that societies in Europe in the later second millennium BC were interacting at a continental scale. We also knew that material and symbols from this area were influential within Europe, but we had not identified the kind of sophisticated society that would be a driver in those communication networks. This find changes this.” 

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Sumerian Anti-Armageddon Device 4,000 Years Older Than Believed

Drone mappers identified a 19 kilometer (12-mile) long canal in rural Iraq. Built over it, archaeologists excavated what was at first thought to be a bizarre-shaped temple. However, it turns out that ,4,000-years-ago, ancient Sumerians built “a one-of-a-kind anti-drought machine.”

Located near the modern city of Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, the ancient city of Girsu was occupied by the Sumerian civilization from the 3rd millennium BC. Dedicated to the war and agriculture god Ningirsu, artifacts recovered from the site have illustrated both the religious and political history of early Mesopotamian society.

A recent dig by the British Museum at Girsu revealed “a mysterious structure,” which in the 1920s was interpreted as an unusually shaped temple. However, members of the  museum’s Girsu Project have now announced that the curious discovery was a 4,000-year-old “innovative civilization-saving machine.”

The British Museum describe the ancient lifesaving device as a “flume” that was used to deliver water to distant locations for agriculture. Ebru Torun, an architect and conservationist working with the British Museum archeologists in Iraq, said “no other example of it exists in history, really, until the present day. It’s absolutely one-of-a-kind.”

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4000-YEAR-OLD MARKINGS ON STONE HAILED AS ‘EUROPE’S OLDEST MAP’ MAY LEAD RESEARCHERS TO A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY

An ancient stone covered in markings believed to represent the oldest map in Europe is revealing new secrets, according to findings that archaeologists believe could lead them to new ancient discoveries.

First discovered in 1900, the Saint-Bélec slab is a 4,000-year-old carved stone fragment found in an ancient burial mound in the Leuhan parish near France’s Finistère Department. Although a portion of the slab’s upper part is missing, most of the relic managed to survive since its creation sometime between 2150 and 1600 BCE.

Believed to be Europe’s oldest map, and possibly one of the oldest maps of any territory that hails from such an early period, the curious stone, at slightly under four meters in length and just over two meters wide, appears to chart a region of ancient western Brittany.

Now, archaeologists believe that following clues the enigmatic stone and its markings may offer could serve as a veritable “treasure map,” which may lead them to the locations of as-yet undiscovered archaeological sites.

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Archaeology’s woke trend: Obtain consent from someone who’s dead to study their bones

There’s an eerie new theory filling academia’s ivied walls – the living and the dead are the same. This latest argument against the use of human skeletal remains in research and teaching, which I’ve come across in person (from students who attended my talk at Brown University, an elite Ivy League college), proposes that the only ethical treatment of skeletal collections is to treat the dead like the living. I’ve seen this same argument, which is applied to prehistoric and historic anthropological collections used to reconstruct past peoples’ lives, in conference programs and on museum websites.

Those researchers interested in examining past populations through the study of human remains, thus, should be required to follow the same ethical guidelines as medical researchers who conduct their work on living people. We need to gather consent forms. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History took down their Written in Bone website that explored ways anthropologists looked at 17th-century residents of the Chesapeake Bay Area, which included colonists, African slaves, and European immigrants. This was because it had come to their attention that they had no consent forms from these people who died 300-years ago!

Interested in studying the past through bones? Now, you must also provide evidence that there are safeguards in place to avoid harming these long-dead individuals. And, researchers of past populations, regardless of how old these collections are, should be required to incorporate HIPAA (the law that provides living patients with privacy concerning their medical records) regulations into their research methods. Of course, it’s a bit difficult to get consent from someone who’s dead. Yet, the repatriation and reburial activists see this as just the right tool to bury the zombified remains whose, last wishes they assume, were to be reburied.

Could there be other tactics to get around these ethical issues? Maybe universities should start employing spirit mediums to run seances to ensure that we can connect with the dead, ask them questions, and get that much-needed consent form signed; can a ghost sign a paper?

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