A stunning trove of ancient jewellery has been found in the grave of a noble warrior woman dating back to the first century AD.
The female fighter was a Sarmatian – a group of people who worshipped fire and whose prominent role in warfare was seen as an inspiration for the Amazons of Greek mythology.
And the discovery of the intact burial mound in Russia has been described as ‘priceless’ by archaeologists.
Story: Will Stewart, The Daily Mail | Story: Institute of Archaeology RAS
A team of archaeologists and volunteers has spent five years investigating the origins of 17 altars found at Maryport Roman fort in 1870.
Now a rare piece of rock crystal from the 2nd or 3rd Century, believed to be the centrepiece from a ring, has been found at the site.
The head of a bearded man, possibly a philosopher, is carved into the back.
It is thought that, when it was originally worn, the polished bronze back would have looked like gold through the stone.
Story: BBC News | Story: Maryport Roman Temples Project
Scientific tests on gruesome finds may reveal if bubonic plague or pestilence caused deaths
A photo of two archaeologists in hard hats digging up a brown skeleton at Crossrail’s excavations at London Liverpool Street station
Archaeologists from Crossrail, the company creating a new entrance at Liverpool Street station, say the “slumped and distorted” mass grave contains the bodies of people buried on the same day.
Story: Culture24 | Photo: Crossrail Ltd
The remains of a 6th-century Roman sanctuary has been unearthed on the Palatine Hill in Rome.
Archaeologists working on the Palatine Hill here this summer excavated parts of sixth-century B.C. foundations connected to a sanctuary of a cult that ancient sources trace back to Romulus, Rome’s mythic founder — a rare find from such an early period.
The discovery, archaeologists say, will probably lead to further exploration for even more ancient elements of the sanctuary, called the Curiae Veteres. The remains came to light during a continuing dig of the northeast slope of the hill. The most recent phase of the dig ended last month.
Story: Elisabetta Povoledo | Photo: Antonio Ferrandes
The figurehead of a 15th century Danish warship has been raised from the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
A wooden sea monster emerged on Tuesday from the Baltic sea after lying on the seabed off the southern Swedish town of Ronneby for more than 500 years.
Representing a ferocious looking creature with lion ears and crocodile-like mouth, the 660-pound figurehead stood at the prow of a ship. It was carved from the top of an 11-foot-long beam.
According to experts at Blekinge museum, which was involved in the salvage effort, the “monster” was part of the Gribshunden, a 15th-century warship belonging to the Danish King Hans.
Story: Rosella Lorenzi, Discovery News | Photo: Johan Rönnby, Södertörn University
The remains of a woman buried with a variety of weapons has been unearthed in southern Kazakhstan.
Experts believe she was a citizen of importance living in the ancient Kanguy state. She is thought to have led a group of nomads who lived somewhere in the area of modern Kazakhstan.
Researchers also found some ancient arrows, a small knife placed close to the right hand of the female warrior and a sword placed close to her left hand indicating that the person was a renowned warrior.
Also buried with her were a number of pots and bowls, indicating that the person was probably both wealthy and important.
Story: The Telegraph | Photo: EuroPics
“This area is four times larger than the ancient site of Troy in Çanakkale and the largest late Bronze Age settlement that has been found in the Aegean region. When the work is done, we will take a very significant step toward promoting Manisa to the world,” said Ya?ar University academic Professor Sinan Ünlüsoy, the deputy head of the Kaymakç? Archaeology Project.
Excavations conducted by an excavation team formed by 42 archaeologists from leading U.S., European and Turkish universities are continuing to shed light on the unknown about the late Bronze Age (1600-1200 B.C.).
Story: Hürriyet Daily News | Photo: DHA
The monolith was found at a depth of 131 feet, on what was once an island in the Sicilian Channel. Called Pantelleria Vecchia Bank, the island was located some 24 miles north of the volcanic island of Pantelleria and was submerged during a massive flood about 9,500 years ago.
Indeed, the entire geography of the Mediterranean Basin was radically altered by the increase in sea level following the Last Glacial Maximum.
“The Sicilian Channel is one of the shallow shelves of the central Mediterranean region where the consequences of changing sea-level were most dramatic and intense,” the researchers wrote.
Story: Rosella Lorenzi, Discovery News | Photo: Discovery News
A Bronze Age wooden track, dating back 4,000 years, has been found in Lincolnshire, England.
According to Royee Greenwald and Alexander Wiegmann, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “There is no doubt that this is a very significant discovery Such a concentration of inscriptions and symbols from the Second Temple period at one archaeological site, and in such a state of preservation, is rare and unique and most intriguing”. At this point in the research the inscriptions are a mystery. Some of the inscriptions might indicate names. The symbols depicted on the walls are common elements in the visual arts of the Second Temple period. In the meantime, the drawing that might possibly be construed as a menorah is exceptional because in those days they abstained from portraying this sacred object which was located in the Temple. According to the excavators, “On the one hand the symbols can be interpreted as secular, and on the other as symbols of religious significance and deep spirituality”.
Story: BBC News | Photo: BBC News
According to Royee Greenwald and Alexander Wiegmann, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “There is no doubt that this is a very significant discovery Such a concentration of inscriptions and symbols from the Second Temple period at one archaeological site, and in such a state of preservation, is rare and unique and most intriguing”. At this point in the research the inscriptions are a mystery. Some of the inscriptions might indicate names. The symbols depicted on the walls are common elements in the visual arts of the Second Temple period. In the meantime, the drawing that might possibly be construed as a menorah is exceptional because in those days they abstained from portraying this sacred object which was located in the Temple. According to the excavators, “On the one hand the symbols can be interpreted as secular, and on the other as symbols of religious significance and deep spirituality”.
Story: Israel Antiquities Authority | Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority
A 7,500-year-old figurine has been been found at a Neolithic settlement in northeast Bulgaria.
The female figurine is seen as especially intriguing because of detailed features – it has its hands on its waist, and its face shows its widely open eyes, its mouth, and even its nostrils, reports the Bulgarian daily Trud, pointing out that clay figurines from the same time period which have been found in Bulgaria so far “have only a nose, at best”.
Story: Ivan Dikov, Archaeology in Bulgaria | Photo: Trud Daily
Prof. Maeir, of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, said that the city gate is among the largest ever found in Israel and is evidence of the status and influence of the city of Gath during this period. In addition to the monumental gate, an impressive fortification wall was discovered, as well as various building in its vicinity, such as a temple and an iron production facility. These features, and the city itself were destroyed by Hazael King of Aram Damascus, who besieged and destroyed the site at around 830 BCE.
The city gate of Philistine Gath is referred to in the Bible (in I Samuel 21) in the story of David’s escape from King Saul to Achish, King of Gath.
Story: Bar-llan University | Photo: Bar-llan Unversity
10,000-year-old Petroglyphs found in Siberia’s Altai Mountains may be the country’s oldest rock are.
A new expedition to the Ukok plateau, some 2,500 metres high in the Altai Mountains close to the modern-day Russian border with Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan, has found evidence that a set of intriguing petroglyphs are far older than previously thought.
Stylistically, the drawings match the Paleolithic tradition, some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. If this is true, they will be the oldest in Siberia by several millennia.
Story: Anna Liesowska, The Siberian Times | Photo: Lidia Zotkina
A cat’s paw prints have been found on a first-century Roman roof tile found in Gloucester, England.
“When Romans made roof tiles they left the wet clay out to dry in the sun,” said a museum spokesman.
“Animals, and people, sometimes walked across the drying tiles and left their footprints behind.
“The cat is thought to have snuck across the wet tiles in Gloucester in about AD100, probably at the annoyance of the tile makers, but this did not stop the Romans from using the tile.
Story: The Telegraph | Photo: GNS
A fragment of a distillation vessel used to make rakia has been found in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian archaeologists recently discovered an 11th century fragment of a distillation vessel used for the production of the country’s traditional fruit brandy, which is known as rakia.
The fragment was uncovered during the excavation works, which are being conducted by the National Historical Museum (NIM) at the medieval Lyutitsa fortress.
Story: Novinite | Photo: NIM
A room full of clay storage jars, dubbed the “wine cellar,” had been found there in the last season. Now the latest excavation season at the site, located in an avocado orchard in the north just five kilometers from the Mediterranean coast, has uncovered three more rooms containing no less than about 70 storage jars.
Altogether, the excavators say, they uncovered at least 120 restorable jars still in situ in four storage rooms in the southern storage area of the palace (including pieces found in the last seasons). They may have also found a fifth storage room in a different building complex located to the northwest. “The rooms have not all been fully excavated,” points out Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa: the number will probably double when that’s done, he adds.
Story: Julia Fridman, Haaretz | Photo: Eric Cline
An adult tooth dating back more than half-a-million years has been found at Arago Cave in France.
The tooth could be the oldest human remains found in France. It predates by 100,000 years the famous Tautavel man, a 20-year-old prehistoric hunter and ancestor of Neanderthal man, who was discovered at the site in 1971 and whose remains dated back about 450,000 years.
Amélie Vialet, a paleoanthropologist overseeing the excavation at the cave, told Agence France-Presse: “A large adult tooth – we can’t say if it was from a male or female – was found during excavations of soil we know to be between 550,000 and 580,000 years old, because we used different dating methods. This is a major discovery because we have very few human fossils from this period in Europe.”
Story: Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian | Photo: Denis Dainat, EPA
The bones were buried less than two feet underground in the quad area of the site and are now being examined by experts with a view to being reburied.
Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, ordered the boiler work – but the skeletons were discovered in the grounds of the neighbouring private school Robert Gordon College.
Contractors installing cables found the first skeleton near Schoolhill main library and called in Aberdeenshire Council archaeologists to carry out further excavations in the area.
Story: The Scotsman | Photo: HEMEDIA
A Maya steal dating back to the 5th century A.D. has been found at El Achiotal in Guatemala.
“This stela portrays an early king during one of the more poorly understood periods of ancient Maya history,” said Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane University’s Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at El Achiotal along with Tomás Barrientos of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.
Story: Tulane University | Photo: Marcello Canuto
Until now, most of what was known about the village came from historical records. But the new dig has given archaeologists a rare opportunity to see first-hand how Montrealers lived more than 200 years ago.
In particular, the site has given researchers insight into how the leather and tanning industry operated in the 18th century.
At the time, more than half of the village’s residents made their living in the trade.
Story: Michael Shulman, CTV News | Photo: Courtesy CTV News
A triangular pane of glass dating back to the Tudors has been found at Elsyng Palace in England.
Archaeologists have discovered a “very rare” triangular artefact from the Tudor period in Enfield, emerging on the former grounds of a palace loved by Henry VIII and stayed at by Queen Margaret of Scotland.
In the culmination of their Festival of Archaeology investigations at Forty Hall Estate, repeatedly used by Henry VIII for hunting in its former guise as Elsyng Palace, Enfield Archaeology Society unearthed a complete window pane, removing the ancient object from the ground to cheers from onlookers.
Story: Ben Miller, Culture24 | Photo: Courtesy Enfield Archaeology Society
4,900-year-old timber that once supported a fortified farmhouse has been found in Wales.
The fortified farmhouse on stilts in the middle of an ice age lake is so old it could have even been built before Stonehenge was created.
At 4,900 years old it’s probably even older than the Pyramids and was probably built to provide a natural moat to protect the rich inhabitants from attackers in an area that is now on the Welsh borders.
It was around the time early man started to live communally and archaeologist Steve Clarke says it is only the second “crannog” to be found in England and Wales and much older than the first.
Story: Janet Hughes, Western Daily Press | Photo: Western Daily Press
The 4,000-year-old remains of a teenager has been found near Stonehenge.
The body, around 1.5m in length, was found in a foetal position and was wearing an amber necklace. Efforts will now be made to determine the age and gender of the child and where they were from after the find was made on Tuesday.
The Vale of Pewsey, situated between Stonehenge and Avebury, is the subject of a three-year dig but over the last six weeks, archaeologists have focused on Marden henge and Wilsford henge.
Story: BT | Photo: BT
Two 100,000-year-old limb bones have been unearthed at the Linjing Historial Site in central China.
Li said the two fossils were discovered not far from each other. Both belong to a young person, maybe even the same person, Li said.
There are several bite marks on the fossils.
“We are not quite sure whether those were from predators or other humans,” Li said.
Story: Qi Xin, China Daily | Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Two fragments of a female figurine carved out of mammoth ivory have been found in a cave in Germany.
The female depictions from Hohle Fels date to 40,000 years ago are the oldest depictions of humans thus far recovered. While the new find is modest compared to the “Venus of Hohle Fels”, its form and the engravings on the surface show strong similarities with the more complete Venus. The new fragment, which represents a breast and part of the stomach, comes from a sculpture that appears to be slightly larger than the ca. 6 cm high discovery from 2008. Both female figurines come from the Aurignacian period during which modern humans rapidly spread across Europe, displacing the indigenous Neanderthals.
Story: University of Tübingen | Photo: M. Malina/University of Tübingen
Archaeologists have unearthed 4,000-year-old Egyptian reliefs at the ancient port city of Berenice.
Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told Ahram Online that studies carried out revealed that the first relief belongs to the Middle Kindom because it bears the cartouche of the seventh king of the 12th Dynasty, King Amenemhat IV, whose reign was characterised by exploration for precious turquoise and amethyst on Punt Island. Meanwhile the second relief, which is in a bad conservation condition, can be dated to the Second Intermediate Period. After restoration, Eldamaty said, more information on the relief would be revealed.
Story: Nevine El-Aref, Ahram Online | Photo: Ahram Online
Perry-Gal says there could be a couple of reasons why the people of Maresha decided to eat chickens.
Maybe, in the dry Mediterranean climate, people learned better how to raise large numbers of chickens in captivity. Maybe the chickens evolved, physically, and became more attractive as food.
But Perry-Gal thinks that part of it must have been a shift in the way people thought about food. “This is a matter of culture,” she says. “You have to decide that you are eating chicken from now on.”
Story: Dan Charles, NPR | Photo: Guy Bar-Oz
Tests show the rare artifacts date back to between 200 AD and 1000 AD — centuries before European settlers made contact with Native Americans, she added.
Sutphin was especially impressed with the condition of the ceramics, which she believes were once used for eating and food preparation.
“I’ve never seen anything like it found in New York City before,” she said.
Story: Rich Calder, New York Post | Photo: Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants, Inc.
It turns out that part of this scroll is from the beginning of the Book of Leviticus, written in Hebrew, and dated by C14 analysis, a form of radiometric dating used to determine the age of organic remains in ancient objects) to the late sixth century C.E. To date, this is the most ancient scroll from the five books of the Hebrew Bible to be found since the Dead Sea scrolls, most of which are ascribed to the end of the Second Temple period (first century B.C.E.-first century C.E.).
The Israel Antiquities Authority cooperated with scientists from Israel and abroad to preserve and digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Story: University of Kentucky | Photo: University of Kentucky
A small Maori fishing settlement dating back to 1350 A.D. has been found in New Zealand.
Furey said sites like this were becoming increasingly rare and this one was one of the oldest Maori settlements uncovered. She said there was no evidence to suggest people were in New Zealand before 1320AD.
University of Auckland archaeologist Simon Holdaway said finds such as fish hooks and fossilised dog poo were small, but significant.
The dog poo helps paint a clearer picture of the relationship between early Maori and the dogs they brought with them on their Pacific voyages. Early settlers ate dogs, a meat saved for high-status Maori. They also used dog hair in cloaks and fed the dogs leftover fish carcasses.
Story: Laura Walters, Auckland Now | Photo: Auckland Now
They spotted the wreck while using WHOI’s robotic autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry and the manned submersible Alvin. The team had been searching for a mooring that was deployed on a previous research trip in the area in 2012.
Among the artifacts discovered amid the shipwreck’s broken remains are an iron chain, a pile of wooden ship timbers, red bricks (possibly from the ship cook’s hearth), glass bottles, an unglazed pottery jug, a metal compass, and another navigational instrument that might be an octant or sextant.
Story: Duke Today | Photo: Luis Lamar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Evidence of some of the world’s oldest dentistry has been found on a 14,000-year-old molar.
Using scanning electron microscopy the researchers uncovered peculiar striations in the internal surface of the large cavity.
“They were the result of a variety of gestures and movements associated with slicing a microlithic point in different directions,” Benazzi said.
Experimental tests carried out on the enamel of three molars using wood, bone and microlithic points confirmed the striations are characteristic of scratching and chipping.
Story: Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News | Photo: Stefano Benazzi
Traces of a wall found along the Zuari River in India may be part of an ancient port.
Scientists in the country have found remnants of a historically important port on Goa’s Zuari River which is expected to be amongst the oldest signs of human trade on the central west coast and may be contemporary to Dwarka in Gujarat.
The researchers say they may discover a dockyard similar in structure to Lothal dockyard (4500 years old), discovered by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Gujarat in 1954.
Story: Press Trust of India | Photo: Press Trust of India
Experts uncovered 50 medieval leather shoes and a bag as well as a wooden bowl and timber posts at the Westgate Shopping Centre excavation.
The objects which “tell us about everyday people” have been so well preserved because the Thames floodplain area is below the water level.
Project director Ben Ford said: “These finds are as rare as gold.”
Story: BBC News | Photo: Oxford Archaeology
“This is a really big finding,” she said. “Especially when we consider that everything else has been broken.”
The pot is tiny, measuring only a few inches wide and it will require further testing. The village will send it to Bristol, England, for residue testing, which might give a clue as to what the pot was used for. That process could take several months. She said the small size of the item could have been one of the reasons it has stayed as one piece after an estimated 1,000 years.
Story: Marcus Traxler, The Daily Republic | Photo: The Daily Republic
A cache of gold coins dating between 1831-1910 has been uncovered in a field in Northern Germany.
The coins had originally been placed in two separate pouches, of which only the seals now remain.
They were buried under about a metre of earth, around the foot of a tree – but were scattered around the area when the tree was later uprooted.
Of the coins, 128 bore Belgian stamps, while 74 originated in France and 12 from Italy. The final three bore Austro-Hungarian stamps.
Story: The Local | Photo: DPA
