Tag: lost civilizations

9,000-year-old Human Skeletons and Over 100,000 Artifacts Unearthed in Brazil

Surveyors in Brazil were appraising a site identified for the building of a new apartment complex. However, they downed tools, and called in archaeologists when they started finding bones and shards of pottery. Now, a multi-layered archaeological site has been revealed which has yielded 43 human skeletons and in excess of 100,000 artifacts.

A team of construction workers were planning on building a new apartment complex in the coastal city of Sao Luis, the capital of Maranhao state in northeastern Brazil, when they came across human bones and shards of pottery. Now, having been dated to around to 9,000 years ago, lead archaeologist, Wellington Lage, said the find might “rewrite the history of human settlement in Brazil”.

The six-hectare (15-ac) plot is known locally as Rosane’s Farm. Back in 2019, the Brazilian construction giant MRV hired now 70-year-old Wellington Lage’s company, “W Lage Arqueologia,” to carry out a site survey before the building of a new apartment building. Researching the site, Lage discovered that bones were recovered in the 1970s, and part of a human jawbone was found in 1991.

According to a CBS news article, over the last four years Lage’s team have unearthed “43 human skeletons and more than 100,000 artifacts.” Brazil’s Institute for National Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), referred to the discoveries as a “grandiose” haul of bones and artifacts.

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2,800-Year-Old Thracian “Pharmaceutical” Center Unearthed at Heraion Teikhos, Turkey

In 2021, a team of researchers unearthed a 2,800-year-old temple at the ancient Thracian city of Heraion Teikhos, in Turkey. Now, a water system has been identified leading to a space within the temple which researchers are calling an “ancient pharmaceutical production area.”

Digging the Thracian City of Heraion Teikhos

The ancient Thracian city, Heraion Teikhos, is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace, in the northwestern Turkish province of Tekirdağ.

Back in 2021, in the city’s acropolis, archaeologists excavated an ancient Thracian civilization temple loaded with rare artworks, which is thought to have been lost in a fire that occurred in 2 BC.

Professor Dr. Neşe Atik told Hurriyet Daily News that a team from Istanbul Rumeli University have been excavating at Heraion Teikhos since 2000. While the temple itself is mostly ruinous, the researchers have removed statues of gods including “Kybele, Eros and Aphrodite as well as bronze coins, amphora and similar pieces from the temple,” said Atik.

Now, the archaeologists have announced their identification of a pharmacological production unit, with its own dedicated water supply system.

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Huge ancient city found in the Amazon

A huge ancient city has been found in the Amazon, hidden for thousands of years by lush vegetation.

The discovery changes what we know about the history of people living in the Amazon.

The houses and plazas in the Upano area in eastern Ecuador were connected by an astounding network of roads and canals.

The area lies in the shadow of a volcano that created rich local soils but also may have led to the destruction of the society.

While we knew about cities in the highlands of South America, like Machu Picchu in Peru, it was believed that people only lived nomadically or in tiny settlements in the Amazon.

“This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilisation, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilisation,” says Prof Stephen Rostain, director of investigation at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France, who led the research.

“It changes the way we see Amazonian cultures. Most people picture small groups, probably naked, living in huts and clearing land – this shows ancient people lived in complicated urban societies,” says co-author Antoine Dorison.

The city was built around 2,500 years ago, and people lived there for up to 1,000 years, according to archaeologists.

It is difficult to accurately estimate how many people lived there at any one time, but scientists say it is certainly in the 10,000s if not 100,000s.

The archaeologists combined ground excavations with a survey of a 300 sq km (116 sq mile) area using laser sensors flown on a plane that could identify remains of the city beneath the dense plants and trees.

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Vast, 4,000-Year-Old Oasis Fortification Discovered in North Arabia

Researchers have found a 4,000-year-old fortification defending an oasis in the North Arabian Desert, at the ancient Khaybar Oasis. It is officially one of the longest known structures – 14.5 kilometers (9 mi), dated to the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. What is left of the rampart’s remains have been dated to between 2250 and 1950 BC, at a time when sedentary populations inhabited the area and oases were common.

Archaeologists from the CNRS and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) have stated that this discovery, alongside the Tayma Oasis, marks one of the two largest walled oases in Saudi Arabia. They have published these finds in a new study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, which has shed new light into human habitation in north-western Arabia during the pre-Islamic era.

Utilizing a combination of field surveys, remote sensing data, and architectural studies, the research team approximated the original dimensions of the fortifications, revealing a structure stretching 14.5 kilometers (9 mi) in length, 1.70 to 2.40 meters (5.5-8.7 ft) in thickness, and standing at approximately 5 meters (16.5 ft) in height.

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Records from Early 20th Century Nubian Excavations Miraculously Rediscovered

A researcher combing through the archives at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom discovered a set of 115-year-old documents that were believed to have been permanently lost eight decades ago. They have revealed a ream of evidence from a little-known cemetery in Lower Nubia, providing a deluge of data on ancient Nubians.

University of Manchester biomedical Egyptologist Jenny Metcalfe recently visited the archives, to search for information about an ancient African people known as the Nubians, who lived in southern Egypt and northern Sudan as long ago as the fifth millennium BC. While checking through records from excavations that took place in the early 20th century, she found a set of what she refers to as “recording cards,” which provided detailed descriptions of human remains unearthed in ancient cemeteries in Lower Nubia (another name for southern Egypt and northern Sudan) by British archaeologists in 1908.

“The recording cards are pre-printed cards designed by Grafton Elliot Smith to help record the individuals they found,” Dr. Metcalfe told Newsweek. “They have boxes for recording details such as site, historical age, age and sex, long bone and skull measurements, teeth present and any evidence of illness or trauma, such as broken bones.”

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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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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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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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Rise of Archery in Andes Mountains Now Dated to 5,000 Years Ago

When did archery arise in the Americas? And what were the effects of this technology on society?

These questions have long been debated among anthropologists and archaeologists. But a study led by a University of California, Davis, anthropologist, published in Quaternary International is shining light on this mystery.

Focusing on the Lake Titicaca Basin in the Andes mountains, anthropologists found through analysis of 1,179 projectile points that the rise of archery technology dates to around 5,000 years ago. Previous research held that archery in the Andes emerged around 3,000 years ago.

The new research indicates that the adoption of bow-and-arrow technology coincided with both the expansion of exchange networks and the growing tendency for people to reside in villages.

“We think our paper is groundbreaking because it gives us a chance to see how society changed throughout the Andes throughout ancient times by presenting a huge number of artifacts from a vast area of South America,” said Luis Flores-Blanco, an anthropology doctoral student and corresponding author of the paper. “This is among the first instances in which Andean archaeologists have investigated social complexity through the quantitative analysis of stone tools.”

Researchers said increasing social complexity in the region is usually investigated through analysis of monumental architecture and ceramics rather than projectile points, which are historically linked to foraging communities.

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