Tag: archaeology

Humans originated in Europe, not Africa, according to fossil discovery

A recent discovery in Türkiye is shaking up our understanding of human evolution. Scientists have identified a new fossil ape, Anadoluvius turkae, from an 8.7-million-year-old site near Çankırı.

This find challenges the long-held belief that human ancestors evolved solely in Africa, suggesting instead that Europe played a significant role in our evolutionary history.

The fossil, uncovered at the Çorakyerler site with support from Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, reveals that Mediterranean fossil apes were more diverse than previously thought.

These apes are part of the earliest known group of hominins, which includes not only African apes like chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas but also humans and their fossil ancestors.

Out of Africa? Maybe not

This discovery adds weight to the theory that the ancestors of African apes and humans may have evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa between nine and seven million years ago.

Professor David Begun from the University of Toronto and Professor Ayla Sevim Erol from Ankara University led the international team of researchers who conducted the study.

“Our findings further suggest that hominines not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa, probably as a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests,” explained Professor Begun.

“The members of this radiation to which Anadoluvius turkae belongs are currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia.”

Partial skull of Anadoluvius turkae

The conclusion drawn from the study is based on the analysis of a well-preserved partial cranium discovered in 2015.

This fossil includes most of the facial structure and the front part of the braincase, providing valuable insights into the ape’s anatomy.

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Archaeologists found a mysterious stone tablet in Georgia that contains an unknown language

Archaeologists have unearthed a basalt tablet with inscriptions in an unknown language near Lake Bashplemi, in the Dmanisi region of Georgia. Although the tablet’s exact age is uncertain, researchers believe it was created in the Late Bronze or Early Iron Ages (first millennium BCE) based on related artifacts such as stone mortar and pottery fragments.

Made of local vesicular basalt, it measures 24.1 x 20.1 cm and records 60 different symbols, 39 of which have no exact equivalent in other known ancient writing systems. The symbols, created using a conical drill and smoothed with rounded tools, reflect a high degree of craftsmanship.

Lake Bashplemi is located on a volcanic plateau surrounded by hills and fed by small tributaries of the Mashavera River. The region is known for its wealth of archaeological discoveries, especially in relation to human remains dating back as far as 1.8 million years.

Researchers discovered ceramic fragments, a mortar stone, and pieces of obsidian on the surface, indicating that the area may have had substantial human activity even though it had not been thoroughly investigated from an archaeological standpoint.

The basalt tablet contains 39 unique symbols arranged in seven horizontal lines or registers. Some of these symbols repeat, allowing for a total of 60 characters on the stone’s surface. The arrangement and frequency of some of the characters suggest that they may have been used to denote numbers or punctuation marks.

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‘King Arthur’s Hall’ is five times older than thought, researchers discover

A historic site in Cornwall linked to King Arthur has been found to be 4,000 years older than previously thought after a new survey was carried out by a team of researchers, including experts from the University of St Andrews.

The team, including Dr. Tim Kinnaird from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, carried out a survey of the mound on Bodmin Moor, named King Arthur’s Hall, confirming the site dates back to prehistoric times.

The monument was previously listed as dating back to the medieval period, but it is now believed to date back 4,000 years earlier to the Neolithic period, thanks to a team of specialists from the universities of St Andrews, Reading, and Newcastle.

The site consists of a rectangular bank of earth and stone formed with 56 standing stones, some measuring up to 1.8 m, which are either leaning, recumbent or partially buried. It’s protected by Historic England, which listed it as an early medieval animal pen from around 1000AD. However, there had been some speculation that due to integrated standing stones, the mound was much older.

Dr. Kinnaird and his team used a technique called optically stimulated luminescence, or OSL—the date the mound to the neolithic period making it around 5,500 years old—4,000 years earlier than previously thought. OSL is used to date when sediment was last exposed to light, prior to burial.

Dr. Kinnaird said the findings were a “major revelation.”

“It’s extremely exciting that we’ve finally been able to date construction of this enigmatic monument, previously grounded in myths and legends.”

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Ancient Construction Technology Discovered Under a Neolithic House

A groundbreaking discovery in Denmark has revealed evidence of an advanced technological structure dating back 5,000 years. While excavating a Neolithic site on the island of Falster, archaeologists uncovered a stone-paved root cellar for storing produce beneath an ancient dwelling. This significant find has challenged existing understandings of Neolithic life in Scandinavia, where early agricultural communities were thought to have employed simpler preservation methods.

The excavation, led by researchers from the Museum Lolland-Falster and Aarhus University, has been documented in a detailed study published in Radiocarbon.

The site at Nygårdsvej 3, was uncovered during construction work for a railway. It has proven to be an archaeological gold mine, well, as regards ancient architecture is concerned. Archaeologists identified two phases of house construction, both attributed to the Funnel Beaker Culture (also known as TRB or Trichterbecherkultur). This culture, which emerged around 4000 BC, marked the region’s shift from a hunter-gatherer society to a more sedentary lifestyle centered on agriculture and animal husbandry.

The houses discovered at the site followed a common architectural design of the period, known as the Mossby-type, which featured large double-span roofs supported by posts. The first house phase, made between 3080 and 2780 BC, had 38 postholes, while the second phase contained 35.

The floors of the houses were made from compacted loam, a mixture of sand and clay that provided a durable and stable surface. This is a construction material still in use in various parts of the world today.

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Orichalcum: Legendary Metal of Atlantis, Or Just A Common Ore?

At the beginning of 2015, several world news organizations reported that archaeologists had recovered 39 ingots of orichalcum from a 2,600-year-old shipwreck, found ten feet underwater off the coast of Sicily, near the town of Gela. (For those not familiar with the name, according to Plato, orichalcum was a type of copper alloy broadly used by the legendary Atlantians.)

Not surprisingly, while the ancient cargo provided the basis to every news report, unfortunately, none of the stories exposed anything new on Atlantis, or on the “mystical” ore, as one reporter called it. Essentially, every editorial capitalized on repeating the same familiar story, raising the usual questions, and sadly arriving at the same past conclusions. Nothing new! As for the particular freight, most reporters connected it to Atlantis, as if Atlantis was around during the Bronze Age (thus, misleading everyone not so familiar with the story) and ignoring the fact that according to Plato, the story of Atlantis took place around 9,600 BC.

In 2017, a further 47 ingots were retrieved, along with a couple of Corinthian helmets, and just this week, the recovery of all the timbers of the ship has been reported as well underway.

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Archaeologists dig up huge burial site that could change what we know about Vikings

Archaeologists have dug up a huge burial site that could change what the world knows about the Viking times.

The excavation of a large Viking-era burial site in Denmark has unearthed 50 unusually well-preserved skeletons that archaeologists expect will help shed light on the lives of the Nordic people best known for their seafaring exploits in the Middle Ages.

The skeletons, discovered near Denmark’s third-largest city Odense, were kept intact by high water levels and favorable soil conditions that prevented them from decomposing, according to Michael Borre Lundoe, the excavation leader from Museum Odense.

“Normally when we excavate Viking graves, we’d be lucky if there were two teeth left in the grave besides the grave goods. But here we have the skeletons fully preserved,” said Lundoe.

“The skeletons are so amazing. They are so well preserved. There are five fingers, five toes. And that opens up a whole new set of possibilities for discoveries,” he said.

Rare artifacts such as knives, glass pearls and brooches dated between year 850 to 970 were also found at the excavation, which began six months ago.

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Archaeologists unlock 3,000-year-old secrets about creation of universe and monsters after deciphering oldest known map of the world

Researchers have finally decoded a Babylonian tablet thought to be the oldest map of the world.

Created between 2,600 and 2,900 years ago, the Imago Mundi provided researchers with a unique glimpse into the beliefs and practices of the ancient civilization.

The Babylonian tablet has a circular map with pieces of text written in cuneiform – an ancient writing system that used wedge-shaped symbols – which describes the early creation of the world. 

The map depicted Mesopotamia – or the land ‘between the rivers’ – a historical area of the Middle East that was thought to be the entire ‘known world’ at the time.

The tablet’s map also confirmed their belief in the mighty God of Creation, Marduk, and mythical creatures and monsters like scorpion-man and Anzu – the lion-headed bird.

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The New Archaeology Wars:How Cancel Culture and Identity Politics Have Corrupted Science

NAGPRA (the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act)1 is a federal law that requires skeletal remains and certain artifacts (such as grave goods and sacred objects) from past populations to be turned over to culturally affiliated present-day Native American tribes. The cultural affiliations can be determined through a variety of means including scientific, historic, and oral traditions, but the determination of affiliation should be by a preponderance of evidence, which means that half or more of the evidence should support the link between the past and the present peoples. All federally funded institutions in the U.S., such as universities and museums (even private ones that accept federal funding) are required to follow NAGPRA. This includes the requirement that they create inventory lists so that Native American tribes can request repatriation of previously discovered and curated items.

In 2017, I decided to reach out to now-retired attorney James W. Springer to see if he’d like to co-author a book on the topic of repatriation that took a critical perspective on the law and the ideology behind repatriation. Jim and I, though never having met face-to-face, had corresponded over the years based on our mutual concern that NAGPRA and similar laws would seriously hinder our ability to accurately understand the past—including the intriguing and ongoing mystery of how the Americas were first peopled.

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Archaeologists Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Tablet With Major Historical Implications

Most of us can do all of our shopping with the click of a few buttons, and while that’s certainly convenient, it can make it difficult to keep track when exactly that new armoire or bookshelf will show up at your doorstep. If you’re really struggling, it might help to take a page out of ancient Turkey’s proverbial book and keep the details written down—on a palm-sized piece of clay.

An excavation at the Aççana Mound—the site of the ancient Anatolian city of Alalah, which served as the capital of the Mukis Kingdom and lives on in ruins that date as far back as 4,000 years ago—recently unearthed a small clay tablet covered in inscribed cuneiform, according to a statement by Mehmet Ersoy, Turkey’s minister of culture and tourism. Researchers studying the tablet have narrowed its origins to some time in the 15th century B.C., during the Late Bronze Age.

Representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are conducting the research on the find, along with Johns Hopkins University associate professor Jacob Lauinger and doctoral student Zeynep Türker.

The initial readings of the tablet’s Akkadian cuneiform include details of a major furniture purchase. Linguists are still working through the writing, according to the ministry’s statement, but the deciphered lines detail purchases of an ample number of wooden tables, chairs, and stools. The experts are slowly putting together more information about the buyers and sellers involved with the exchange, making headway towards deciphering a window into the city’s economic processes.

The small piece of clay measures only 4.2 centimeters by 3.5 centimeters, it’s just 1.6 centimeters thick, and it weighs 28 grams. But despite its diminutive size, the tablet will help paint a much larger picture of Bronze Age Turkey as it undergoes more study, providing helpful insight into “the economic structure and state system of the Late Bronze Age,” according to Ersoy.

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At Least 30 Egyptian Tombs Have Reappeared—and Archaeologists Are Astounded

There are a few questions coming from an archaeological dig on a hillside along the Nile River near the ancient Egyptian city of Aswan. The biggest, though, is exactly why two mummies were glued together inside the same stone coffin.

During a joint Italian and Egyptian archaeological mission working in the vicinity of the Aghakhan Shrine west of Aswan, the team explored the multi-level structure crafted into the hillside. Originally discovered outside of official channels—read: during illegal excavations—the government stepped in and took control.

The joint group dated the site to from 332 B.C. to 395 A.D., somewhere in the late Greek and Roman periods. Ayman Ashmawi—head of the Egyptian archaeological sector of the Supreme Council—said in a news release that the group found what equates to 33 graves, and as many as 40 percent of the remains were from those who died either as newborns or within their first couple of years. They also started discovering some more incredible things, such as the 10-level tomb still containing oil lamps that were potentially left behind by mourners.

“We can imagine how spectacular it was when, for example, during the [mourners’] feast, all these tombs were illuminated,” Patrizia Piacentini—Egyptologist and archaeologist at the University of Milan who led the effort at the site—told Live Science.

Believed to be family graves based on the range of ages of the deceased, the site was likely in use for around 900 years, Piacentini said.

The team discovered several mummies, including two bodies glued to each other inside a stone coffin. The team plans to study the pair to find out their relationship, said Abdul Moneim Saeed, the director of the archaeological mission for the Egyptians.

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