Archives: Articles

This is the example article

Iron Age purple dye “factory” in Israel was in operation for almost 500 years, using mollusks in large-scale specialized manufacturing process

Purple-dyed textiles, primarily woolen, were much sought after in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean, and they adorned the powerful and wealthy. It is commonly assumed that in antiquity, purple dye—extracted from specific species of marine mollusks—was produced in large quantities and in many places around the Mediterranean. But despite numerous archaeological excavations, direct and unequivocal evidence for locales of purple-dye production remains very limited in scope. Here we present Tel Shiqmona, a small archaeological tell on Israel’s Carmel coast. It is the only site in the Near East or around the Mediterranean—indeed, in the entire world—where a sequence of purple-dye workshops has been excavated and which has clear evidence for large-scale, sustained manufacture of purple dye and dyeing in a specialized facility for half a millennium, during the Iron Age (ca. 1100–600 BCE). The number and diversity of artifacts related to purple dye manufacturing are unparalleled. The paper focuses on the various types of evidence related to purple dye production in their environmental and archaeological contexts. We utilize chemical, mineralogical and contextual analyses to connect several categories of finds, providing for the first time direct evidence of the instruments used in the purple-dye production process in the Iron Age Levant. The artifacts from Shiqmona also serve as a first benchmark for future identification of significant purple-dye production sites around the Mediterranean, especially in the Iron Age.*

____________________________

Hexaplex trunculus shell collected near Tel Shiqmona. 400 such shells were identified by two free-style divers within 90 mins at a depth of one to two meters on October 20, 2020. Photo by Ayelet Gilboa. Shalvi et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0

____________________________

Photo of body sherds of purple dye vats with purple dye remains. Shalvi et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

____________________________

Stone tools with purple dye residue. Photos by Maria Bukin. Shalvi et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0

____________________________

Article Source: PLOS news release.

*Shalvi G, Sukenik N, Waiman-Barak P, Dunseth ZC, Bar S, Pinsky S, et al. (2025) Tel Shiqmona during the Iron Age: A first glimpse into an ancient Mediterranean purple dye ‘factory’. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0321082.

Sunscreen, clothes and caves may have helped Homo sapiens survive 41,000 years ago

University of Michigan—ANN ARBOR—Ancient Homo sapiens may have benefitted from sunscreen, tailored clothes and the use of caves during the shifting of the magnetic North Pole over Europe about 41,000 years ago, new University of Michigan research shows.

These technologies could have protected Homo sapiens living in Europe from harmful solar radiation. Neanderthals, on the other hand, appear to have lacked these technologies and disappeared around 40,000 years ago, according to the study, published in Science Advances and led by researchers at Michigan Engineering and the U-M Department of Anthropology.

The team found that the North Pole wandered over Europe when the magnetic field’s poles started to flip positions, a natural process that has happened around 180 times over Earth’s geological history. While the magnetic reversal didn’t complete at the time, the magnetic field weakened to cause aurora to occur over most of the globe, and allowed more harmful UV light to come in from space. 

Around the same time, Homo sapiens appear to have started making tailored clothing and using ochre, a mineral that has sun-protective properties when applied to the skin, with greater frequency. These behaviors could have contributed to their spread throughout Europe and Asia at a time when the Neanderthal population was declining.

“In the study, we combined all of the regions where the magnetic field would not have been connected, allowing cosmic radiation, or any kind of energetic particles from the sun, to seep all the way in to the ground,” said Agnit Mukhopadhyay, lead author and U-M research affiliate in climate and space sciences and engineering. 

“We found that many of those regions actually match pretty closely with early human activity from 41,000 years ago, specifically an increase in the use of caves and an increase in the use of prehistoric sunscreen.”

Wandering poles

Earth’s magnetic field is created by its rotation, and by extension, the rotation of its core. The core, which is composed of molten iron, generates electrical currents, which extend in a halo around the globe. This halo helps protect Earth from cosmic radiation—the stuff that thins Earth’s ozone layer and lets in more UV light. The interaction of these particles with Earth’s magnetic field results in aurora as well.

Mukhopadhyay began building models of this interaction using the Space Weather Modeling Framework, a versatile numerical tool developed and maintained by the U-M Center for Space Environment Modeling, to study the sun, heliosphere and planetary space environments, including that of Earth. 

The sun continually throws hot gases and charged particles toward Earth, which, because of their extremely high temperatures, act as a plasma system. Mukhopadhyay developed a model that predicts how this plasma system interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, ultimately driving the formation of the aurora.

This magnetic field has a north and south orientation: the North and South poles. The orientation of the magnetic field is why you typically only see aurora at the North and South poles, where magnetic fields are the strongest. But occasionally throughout history, these poles wander from their traditional geographic positions. These are called “geomagnetic excursions,” says Mukhopadhyay. The most recent event is called the Laschamps excursion, which occurred about 41,000 years ago.

Working with Sanja Panovska, a researcher at Germany’s GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Mukhopadhyay created a 3D reconstruction of Earth’s geospace system. To do this, the researchers combined three separate models: one global model that reconstructs the geomagnetic field during the Laschamps excursion, a model of the space plasma environment around Earth, and a model that predicted what Earth’s aurora looked like at the time. The resulting 3D model showed where charged particles were able to slip through Earth’s geomagnetic field.

The researchers found that during the Laschamps excursion, Earth’s magnetic field reduced in size to about 10% of its current strength. This allowed Earth’s magnetic poles to droop down near the equator and for its magnetic field lines to expand. This would have also allowed aurora to be seen all over Europe and into northern Africa.

The researchers then laid their 3D map of Earth’s space system over the world, and found that the time period of the Laschamps excursion—which lasted from about 41,000 to 39,000 BP—coincided with periods of change for groups of humans living on the planet

Cosmic rays, radiation and survival

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens coexisted in Europe, with Homo sapiens—often called anatomically modern humans—arriving roughly 56,000 years ago, says Raven Garvey, U-M associate professor of anthropology. By about 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals were no longer identified as a species in Europe.

“What some of the differences are between these species, between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, that might account for that disappearance has been a major anthropological question for decades,” Garvey said.

Clothing may have been a contributing factor, she said. The technological means of producing clothing that fitted to the body has been discovered at archaeological sites associated with anatomically modern humans, but not necessarily Neanderthals. 

However, at sites associated with anatomically modern humans, archaeologists have found not only scrapers used in hide production, but also needles and awls—items associated with sewing. According to Garvey, tailored clothing has a twofold benefit: It was significantly warmer and the added warmth meant that people could travel farther from their hearths and shelters in search of food.

Tailored clothing could have also provided another unintended benefit—protection from sun damage, she said.

There are multiple detrimental effects of solar radiation, including ocular pathologies and folate depletion (which can lead to birth defects and increased infant mortality), “so having protection against solar radiation would also have conferred significant advantage to anyone who possessed it,” Garvey said. 

Homo sapiens may have also ramped up their use of ochre, a naturally occurring pigment composed of iron oxide, clay and silica that has been used by many species of hominins for a very long time. People used it to paint objects, cave walls and even to decorate their bodies.

“There have been some experimental tests that show it has sunscreen-like properties. It’s a pretty effective sunscreen, and there are also ethnographic populations that have used it primarily for that purpose,” Garvey said. “Its increased production and its association primarily with anatomically modern humans (during the Laschamps) is also suggestive of people’s having used it for this purpose as well.”

Finding caution in the (solar) wind

The researchers are careful to underscore that their findings aren’t definitive. However, they are a new way to look at already existing data.

“I think it’s important to note that these findings are correlational and (ours is a) meta analysis, if you will,” Garvey said. “But I think it is a fresh perspective on these data in light of the Laschamps excursion.”

In addition to examining how previous excursions might have affected humans long ago, Mukhopadhyay said the 3D model offers people a way to predict how excursions might affect us in the future.

“If such an event were to happen today, we would see a complete blackout in several different sectors,” he said. “Our communication satellites would not work. Many of our telecommunication arrays, which are on the ground, would be severely affected by the smallest of space weather events, not to mention the human impacts which would also play a pretty massive role in our day-to-day lives.”

Mukhopadhyay also pointed out that their work also highlights that people were still able to survive on a planet whose atmosphere looked a lot different than ours does today, and this has implications for the search for life on planets other than Earth.

“Many people say that a planet cannot sustain life without a strong magnetic field,” he said. “Looking at prehistoric Earth, and especially at events like this, helps us study exoplanetary physics from a very different vantage point. Life did exist back then. But it was a little bit different than it is today.”

Study co-authors also include Michael Liemohn, Daniel Welling and Austin Brenner of Michigan Engineering, Natalia Ganjushkina of both Michigan Engineering and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Ilya Usoskin of the University of Oulu and Mikhail Balikhin of the University of Sheffield.

______________________________

Article Source: University of Michigan news release.

Discoveries at Abydos

El Araba El Madfuna, meaning ‘the Buried Wagon’ in arabic, otherwise known as Arabeh el-Madfuna, “the buried Arabah”, is a small Egyptian town on the edge of the desert, 9 miles west of the Nile on the western side of the Nile valley. Settled about 300 miles south of the massive population center of Cairo and the iconic Giza pyramids, by itself it does not attract much attention. But very near to the town are the monumental remains of Abydos, a place that draws thousands of visitors every year. Considered one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, it is also known for its significance as one of the most important religious centers of Egyptian civilization, centered around the cult of Osiris and Isis, and the burial place of Egypt’s first pharaohs (ca. 3000-2800 BCE). Walking among its silent stones, one cannot help but feel the heat of the desert sun kissing this place with a sense of sterile purity, sanctifying it over 5,000 years with a deeply and uniquely ancient Egyptian spirituality. Here was Egypt’s main center dedicated to the worship of Osiris, god of the afterlife, resurrection, fertility, agriculture, life, and vegetation. Spanning multiple dynasties and kingdoms, it was, for the ancient Egyptians, the “go-to” place at the heart of their religion and storied beginnings.

___________________________

The interior of the iconic Temple of Seti I at Abydos. From the earliest times, Abydos was the center of the rising cult of Osiris and Isis. The temple contains an inscription known as the Abydos King List. Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

___________________________

Recent decades have seen Abydos slowly resurrect under the methodological hands of archaeologists….

Excavations at Anubis-Mountain

It was in 1901 when the tomb of the 12th Dynasty Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senwosret III (who reigned ca. 1880-1850 BCE) was first discovered. Among the largest royal tombs of ancient Egypt, the tomb complex and the area around it has been under investigation since 1994 by teams from the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum), currently headed by Josef Wegner, as part of the combined University of Pennsylvania-Yale-Institute of Fine Arts/New York University Expedition in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The excavations have focused primarily on Senwosret’s subterranean tomb, his mortuary temple and associated structures, a related royal town settlement known as Wah-Sut, and a New Kingdom cemetery further to the north. Senwosret was significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the nature of his burial—instead of being interred within a traditional royal pyramid like his forerunners, he chose to be buried in a subterranean tomb. This was a first, giving rise eventually to the well-known underground tomb concept popularly associated with the royal tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb is located near a peak in the cliffs near the excavations, a place ancient texts have designated as “Anubis Mountain,” a sacred mountain, and thus the work has been popularly penned as the Anubis Mountain excavations.

Particularly since 2014, extraordinary new discoveries have come to light that are beginning to change what we know about a relatively obscure time in ancient Egyptian history, the Second Intermediate Period and the mystery of the lost Abydos Dynasty.

________________________

Panorama of the landscape of the Anubis-Mountain necropolis. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum, as published at Popular Archaeology, June 14, 2017, A Pharaoh’s Massive Tomb Unveiled

________________________

Above and below: Views within the newly revealed massive tomb complex of Senwosret III. Note the remarkable interior of well-dressed masonry. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum, as published at Popular Archaeology, June 14, 2017, A Pharaoh’s Massive Tomb Unveiled

________________________

________________________

Senwosret III at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1917. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544186, CCO 1.0 Universal, Wikimedia Commons

________________________

The Tomb of the Warrior King

Winter, 2014The first clues were nothing extraordinary—a line of mudbricks in the sand, not unlike the first evidence of many of the other tombs already found in this ancient, sacred place. 

But digging down further, the excavators could see something different about this one. The line of bricks eventually became walls, and the walls became a decorated burial chamber. Wall paintings depicted images of the Egyptian gods IsisNutNephthys, and Selket, surrounding a canopic shrine. Among the paintings was a royal cartouche. Cartouches always meant names. This one belonged to ‘Woseribre Senebkay’—a virtual unknown among the pharaonic lists. The tomb had all the hallmarks of a royal tomb, but the name didn’t ring any bells for the excavators.

Who was this Senebkay?

Further excavation of this mystery tomb revealed an antechamber (now dated to Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period, or 1650 to 1550 BCE) containing skeletal remains, presumably of Senebkay himself. Also with his remains was his canopic chest, and fragments of a mummy mask. The condition and positioning of the objects had all the signs that the tomb had been plundered anciently by robbers—what was left was only debris, his mummy having been torn apart in antiquity, his coffin and canopic chest in fragments, and the original gild surfaces of his other tomb equipment long gone.  But for archaeologists, there was enough information here to keep them busy for years. The skeletal remains alone contained a wealth of information, and as modern forensic science would have it, the scientists were in for a fascinating up-close-and-personal encounter with a pharaoh who, until January, 2014, no one knew existed.

___________________________

Team members work to excavate the burial chamber of the pharaoh Woseribre Senebkay, with sheets covering a painted wall decoration. Photo: Josef Wegner, Penn Museum. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

___________________________

The exposed tomb of Woseribre Senebkay. Here, a LiDAR instrument and spheres were set up to create a precise digital map of the tomb. As an essential part of investigating the area in which the tomb was located, researchers utilized technology such as LiDAR ( Light Detection And Radar), as well as magnetometry and ground penetrating radar. Photo courtesy Paul Verhelst. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

___________________________

At left, the sun disc and goose means “Son of Re” (or Ra), the Egyptian sun god. The cartouche at right spells the name of the pharaoh, Senebkay, whose body was interred in this tomb. Photo: Jennifer Wegner, Penn Museum. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

___________________________

A Violent Death

Initial examination of Senebkay’s skeleton by University of Pennsylvania graduate students and team members Paul Verhelst and Matthew Olson suggested the king was moderate in height, about 5’10, and that he died in his mid-to-late 40s.

But further study revealed much more. A more detailed examination by Dr. Maria Rosado and Dr. Jane Hill of Rowan University pinpointed his death at 35 to 40 years of age, and showed clear evidence of multiple wounds to his body. They documented no less than 18 wounds, including cuts to his lower back, knees, ankles, feet, and hands. But, according to the examiners, death likely came as evidenced by three major wounds to his skull. More telling, the wounds matched the distinctive size and shape of well-known battleaxes used in warfare during Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period. And more telling still, the pattern of most of the wounds suggested that they had been inflicted while he was in an elevated position.

A few possible scenarios could explain this. One stands out—evidence on the femur and pelvis bones of muscle attachments indicated he had spent a significant amount of his life on horseback.

Was Senebkay slain in battle or in an ambush while on horseback?

The researchers suggest this as a real possibility. He may have been, like other pharaohs known from later periods, a warrior king, fighting alongside his troops. Another king’s remains, discovered in a tomb near Senebkay’s, also indicated a life of horseback riding, additional evidence that Second Intermediate Period kings were already riding horses, a skill that was not known to have been commonly employed in battle until after the Bronze Age. Was horseback riding beginning to play an increasing role in military campaigns as early as the Second Intermediate Period? The researchers hope that further discoveries and research will shed more light on the question.

In any case, for the first time, archaeologists had what appeared to be first evidence of a long-forgotten Egyptian pharaoh who likely met a dramatic and viciously dealt death—what today could be the stuff of a cinematic production.

Other key questions revolve around whom he might have fought and where the battle took place, assuming by interpretation that he died in battle. His remains indicated that a significant amount of time passed between the time of his death and actual burial, suggesting that his body may possibly have been transported from a distant location to the place of burial. But this is where the evidence stops. Based on what scholars know about the history of the region, the king may have died fighting the Hyksos. The ancient record reflects 15th Dynasty Hyksos rule of northern Egypt at that time. Alternatively, he may have died in battle against possible enemies such as the 16th Dynasty Thebans to the south, or the Nubians, who according to written records from his time invaded Egypt from the south at least once. These are questions that await further research.

_____________________________

The skeleton of pharaoh Woseribre Senebkay. Originally mummified, the body was ripped apart by robbers in antiquity. Photo: Josef Wegner, Penn Museum. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

_____________________________

Schematic showing the distribution of traumatic battle wounds to Senebkay: front view. Image: Dr. Jane Hill. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

_____________________________

Schematic showing the distribution of traumatic battle wounds to Senebkay: rear view. Image: Dr. Jane Hill. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

_____________________________

Image composite depicting the right ankle and left knee of Woseribre Senebkay’s skeleton. The patterns of wounds to Senebkay’s body suggest he was attacked while in an elevated position relative to his assailants, quite possibly mounted on horseback. Image: Jane Hill and Josef Wegner. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

_____________________________

Rear view of Woseribre Senebkay’s skull, indicating the locations of two axe wounds to the back of the cranium. Photo: Jane Hill and Josef Wegner. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

_____________________________

Front and top views of Woseribre Senebkay’s skull, indicating the location of an axe wound to the front of the cranium. This and two other major blows to Senebkay’s skull preserve the distinctive size and curvature of battle axes used during Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period. Photo: Josef Wegner, Penn Museum. From The Tomb of the Warrior King, March 16, 2015, Popular Archaeology

_____________________________

A Dynasty Lost and Found

As the excavators found, the tomb of Senebkay proved to be comparatively modest in scale and showed reuse of materials from the earlier Middle Kingdom, such as decayed cedar wood remains of his canopic chest, which still bore the name of Sobekhotep I beneath its gild covering. This, along with other evidence, suggested a kingdom with far more limited resources than the previous Middle Kingdom. But the discovery provides new evidence of the existence of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty contemporary with the 16th Theban Dynasty to its south and the 15th Hyksos Dynasty to its north.

There is now evidence for 18 royal tombs spanning the period of this lost dynasty. Tombs of nine of them have been excavated, of which Senebkay’s, dated to 1650 BCE, is one, revealing clues to a time and series of pharaohs that until now were not known to exist.

Who were these kings and what was their place in history? Sandwiched between their Hyksos and Theban Dynasty contemporaries, did they vie with them for power and control of all of ancient Egypt, or simply defend themselves in efforts to hold on to what they had, including invasions from the Nubians further to the south? Do Senebkay’s fatal wounds tell a story that could have anything to do with any of these potential scenarios?  Wegner’s team, including other researchers, may find answers to these questions as they continue their investigations. Senebkay’s tomb, was, in fact, one of eight relatively small tombs clustered within preexisting enclosures in the same area that has been investigated by Wegner’s team, all exhibiting similar structural characteristics and dates and pointing to the existence of a previously unknown dynasty.

The Tomb of the Unknown King

Investigations and excavations at Anubis-Mountain did not stop with the Senebkay tomb. Something remarkable happened again in January, 2025, as the team was investigating an ancient large brick enclosure that included the previously identified tomb of Pharaoh Neferhotep I

Digging down through the sand in the corner area of the great enclosure, the excavators could see the signs of the destructive work of ancient tomb robbers, then features of massive brick walls. The slow, grudging work of digging through the sand deposits then began to give way to a very different feeling.

_____________________________

Digging through the sand deposits, something remarkable emerges. Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum

_____________________________

“It was a very exciting discovery when we realized we had come upon yet another royal tomb,” said Wegner.

At about 23 feet below the surface, the telltale features of the tomb began to emerge. Built of limestone, it was large, with a decorated entryway and other chambers capped by 16-foot-high vaults made of mudbrick.

_____________________________

The features of the tomb structure began to emerge after painstaking excavations.Image: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum.

_____________________________

Photo: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum.

_____________________________

They estimated it to be 3,600 years old, set within the Egyptian Late Middle Kingdom—early Second Intermediate Period, a time just before the period of instability when Egypt splintered into rival, warring kingdoms. This tomb exhibited architectural and decorative features very similar to that of the Senebkay tomb, albeit much larger, supporting the archaeologists’ suggestion that the ruler to whom the tomb belonged may have been a predecessor, possibly Senaiib or Paentjeni, who, like Senebkay, were kings of the little-known Abydos Dynasty, but whose tombs have not yet been found.

_____________________________

Image: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum

_____________________________

The 3,600-year-old limestone tomb chamber.  Image: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum 

_____________________________

Image: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum

_____________________________

As excavators cleaned and defined the walls of the tomb, they could see scant remaining traces of polychrome wall paintings, scenes that appeared to depict the goddess Isis, the goddess of healing and motherhood, and Nephthys, her sister, who is frequently shown with Isis in funerary contexts. Moreover, excavators could see that the pharaoh’s name was likely originally once painted into scenes depicted on the plaster and brickwork that decorated the burial chamber entrance. Unfortunately, the work of ancient tomb robbers had significantly erased most of the hieroglyphic text. Not enough of the text has survived to afford identification of the pharaoh’s name.

______________________________

The limestone burial chamber featured a decorated entryway. See traces of decoration on the right. Image: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum

______________________________

The unknown king’s name was painted on ancient plastered brickwork leading to the limestone chamber, but ancient tomb robbers damaged the hieroglyphic texts. Image: Dr. Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum

______________________________

As Wegner and the archaeological team continue to dig and investigate, more and more about the obscure Abydos Dynasty is coming to light. According to Dr. Wegner, the tomb discovery confirms there are likely additional early kings buried in, and around, the nearby large tomb enclosure of the pharaoh Neferhotep I, the 13th Dynasty king who ruled a century before the Abydos Dynasty. The enclosure area interior and associated tombs have been under systematic investigation by the Wegner team. Another large tomb, which, like the others, was found to have been plundered of its treasures as well as architectural stones during the Second Intermediate Period, is thought to be that of king Sobekhotep IV, Neferhotep’s brother. Both kings were considered active in the Abydos area during their reigns.

Investigations and excavations at Anubis Mountain will continue through the application of the latest technology, including remote sensing, photogrammetry (three-dimensional modeling of the tombs) and magnetometry(magnetic mapping).

“We have a series of tombs,” says Wegner. “It’s exciting to find not just the tomb of one previously unknown [now identified] pharaoh, but the necropolis of an entire forgotten dynasty,” stated Dr. Wegner in a Penn Museum press release. “Continued work in the royal tombs of the Abydos Dynasty promises to shed new light on the political history and society of an important but poorly understood era of Ancient Egypt.”*

_______________________________

See more about the Penn Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

*https://www.penn.museum/about/press-room/press-releases/penn-museum-and-egyptian-archaeologists-unearth-a-3-600-year-old-tomb-from-the-lost-abydos-dynasty

_______________________________

Advertisement

See the monumental discoveries at Abydos in person! Join Popular Archaeology Magazine and an Egyptologist on a specially organized land and Nile cruise tour of ancient Egypt’s most iconic sites, to include the Grand Egyptian Museum and the spectacular treasures of Tutankhamun, the tomb of Tutankhamun, the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, the necropolis of Saqqara, Abydos, the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, and many other iconic tomb and temple sites. This tour is planned for the late fall of 2026 or early spring of 2027. It includes an optional extension to Amman, Petra and the Dead Sea in Jordan. The cost of the 13 -day core Egypt tour is estimated to be between $3,500 and $4,400, excluding airfare.  Email populararchaeology@gmail.com to express interest and to receive more information!

A Pharaoh’s Massive Tomb Unveiled

Julie Masis is a freelance journalist based in Cambodia.  Her stories have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Science magazine and in other publications.

Editor’s Note: What follows is a reprise of the article published in 2017 in Popular Archaeology about the remarkable rediscovery and excavation of a tomb of the major Egyptian Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senwosret III at the Anubis-Mountain site in Abydos, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt. It is within the expansive enclosure surrounding his tomb where more recent excavations (published in this issue) have revealed more tombs extending into the Second Intermediate Period. Led by the Penn Museum’s Josef Wegner in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, these tombs, including that of Senwosret III, are producing new revelations about ancient pharaohs and the lesser-known period of history, as well as a lost dynasty, that followed the iconic king’s reign.  

Today, the tomb of King Senwosret III, one of the most renowned pharaohs of ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, offers a remarkable new example of the architecture of Egyptian builders who constructed burial complexes almost four thousand years ago, according to Dr. Josef Wegner, Curator of the Egyptian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum). He has been excavating in Abydos, where the tomb is located and one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, for decades. 

Dated to 1850 BC, it is the largest tomb at Abydos. The tomb measures 200 meters in length and 45 meters deep. To visualize how massive this is, one would need to imagine a 13 story building underground. “The architecture is amazing,” says Wegner. “It’s like going into a pyramid. It’s architecture is symbolic – depicting the sacred journey into the afterlife.”

The entrance of the tomb faces westwards (symbolizing death, because the sun sets in the west) and then the underground complex curls under a sacred natural mountain, anciently known as Anubis-Mountain, to face the eastern horizon, the direction from which the sun rises, symbolizing rebirth, explained Wegner. “For the Egyptians, that the sun vanishes in the west and magically rises in the east is one of the secrets of the universe, giving them the power of rejuvenation,” he said. 

The burial complex features chambers with ceilings six meters high, as well as narrow passageways with blocking stones. The chambers are connected to each other with sloping passages. To navigate the tomb structure, archaeologists, while exploring it, had to slide down at approximately a 30 degree angle. Some blocking stones in these passages weigh as much as 40 to 50 tons. The air inside is stuffy, which makes some people uncomfortable, Wegner admitted. “Some people get a little nervous going into it. When we first opened it, it was full of debris, so we had to crawl on our hands and knees and slither like a snake.”

Luckily, today visitors will not have to slither like snakes when they visit the tomb. Stairs with handrails, lights, and a ventilation system were installed and debris and broken blocking stones were removed to make it possible for people to walk upright. 

The significance of the tomb

Although first discovered and explored in 1901 by Arthur Weigall, the tomb was not systematically excavated until Wegner and a team reopened it in 2005 with a plan for full excavation, publication and restoration of the tomb. Since then, more detailed features of the tomb structure have been revealed. It was found to be devoid of wall decoration, but its interior was lined with well-dressed masonry of Tura limestone and red Aswan quartzite. The burial chamber contained the broken remains of the king’s granite sarcophagus and canopic box, and was protected by an elaborate system of massive stone blocks and architectural techniques for concealing the royal burial’s location. Several of the blocking stones weighed over 50 tons, designed to prevent access by tomb robbers into the burial chamber itself. 

Most significantly, the Senwosret III tomb is now the first known example of a hidden royal tomb, representing a change from the ancient traditional concept of the royal pyramid to that of a royal subterranean complex like those of the later royal burials in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. Describing the tomb, Wegner and researchers write that “the tomb itself extends beneath the peak of Anubis-Mountain which serves as a substitute for the built pyramid. This name occurs on many clay impressions produced by a necropolis seal that was used extensively in a variety of administrative and ceremonial activities at the tomb site.” The tomb is thus a massively monumental example of a major shift in ancient Egyptian royal burial practices.

__________________________________

abydosmap

 Location of Abydos in relation to other ancient sites in Egypt.

__________________________________

tombPanorama of the landscape of the Anubis-Mountain necropolis

 Panorama of the landscape of the Anubis-Mountain necropolis. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

_____________________________________

tombOverall plan of the complex of Senwosret III at South Abydos

 Overall plan of the complex of Senwosret III at South Abydos. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

_______________________________________________

tombCut-away view of the Senwosret III tomb

 Cut-away view of the Senwosret III tomb. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

___________________________________________________

tomb1

 The tomb features sloping passages between chambers. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

______________________________________________________

tomb3

 Above and below: Views within the newly revealed massive tomb complex of Senwosret III. Note the remarkable interior of well-dressed masonry. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

tomb5

tomb6

tomb4

tombWork inside the tomb of Senwosret III

tomb7

 Red Aswan quartzite is a major material feature of the tomb. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum 

______________________________

Who was Senwosret III?

Much is known about Senwosret from inscriptions on ancient stone stelae. According to monuments he had erected during his reign, he expanded Egypt’s territory further south, more than any previous ruler, said Adela Oppenheim, a curator in the Egyptian Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It set the pace for his followers. “He said that any son who does not keep this border is not his son,” added Oppenheim. He initiated military campaigns in Nubia, an ancient region that spans southern Egypt and northern Sudan. He also built temples, monuments and fortresses (most of which were flooded when the Egyptians built the Aswan Dam in the 1960s), added Wegner. 

It is believed that Senwosret III lived between 1878 BC and 1840 BC and that he was the son of Senwosret II, although this is not proven, according to Oppenheim. He had many wives, although it is not known how many. 

Historians know what Senwosret III looked like because sculptures of him have survived, including two originals outside of Egypt at the Metropolitan museum in New York. Interestingly, he is the first ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was sculpted as an older man, without a smile on his face, said Oppenheim. “During this period, there was a radical change in how the king was depicted. He is depicted as if he has signs of aging. He is shown frowning. He has wrinkles on his forehead.” The reasons for this are not clear, but some historians say that perhaps this is because Egypt was enduring difficult times during Senwosret’s reign. However, Oppenheim believes that the sculptors were simply trying to show that the pharaoh had the wisdom that comes with age. 

____________________________________

senwosretface1

 Senwosret III at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1917. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544186

 ________________________________________________

senwosretface2

 Senwosret III as a sphinx. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1917. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544186

____________________________________ 

Was Senwosret III’s body actually buried in the Abydos tomb? 

Senwosret had two burial places prepared for himself – a pyramid at Dahshur, near Cairo, where he also erected pyramids for his mother, his chief wife and other royal women – and the tomb at Abydos much farther south, which today is an eight hour drive from the Egyptian capital. 

But which one was the actual burial place of the king? 

While Senwosret III’s mummy was never found, historians are almost certain that he was not buried in the pyramid in Dahshur – because archaeologists did not find any pottery or debris, or evidence that a sarcophagus was ever placed there, said Openheim, who is also the co-director of the excavation of the Dahshur pyramid of Senwosret III. 

In Abydos, on the other hand, archaeologists did find fragments of stone vessels that typically would have been laid in a royal tomb, indicating that the pharaoh was buried there, Wegner said. But no mummy. According to Wegner, it may have been destroyed when ancient robbers were searching for other valuables. 

Other tombs to open to the public

In addition to King Senwosret’s tomb, which is the largest tomb in Abydos, there are several other ancient tombs in the area of Anubis-Mountain. 

One is the smaller tomb of King Senebkay, wherein archaeologists uncovered the skeletal remains of a previously unknown king who died around 1650 BC, about two centuries after King Senwosret. Unlike King Senwosret, about whom historians know much from ancient inscriptions, virtually the only information that we have about King Senebkay comes from his tomb. The king’s bones are marked with injuries that ended his life, Wegner said. Archaeologists discovered cut marks on the king’s feet and ankles (which suggest that he was attacked from below, perhaps while he was mounted on a horse), as well as injuries to his skull. (It is suggested that he was killed by axe blows to the head after he fell to the ground.)  “It is the earliest king whose physical remains indicate that he died in a battle,” Wegner said.* 

Unlike Senwosret’s tomb, which is not decorated, Senebkay’s tomb is adorned with hieroglyphics, Wegner said. 

Two tombs of brother kings Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV have also come to light. In ancient times, these two tombs probably had small pyramids, although these pyramids have not survived, Wegner said. He explained that the design of the tombs indicate that they were once capped by a superstructure. 

In all, the Abydos necropolis contains the tombs of at least 13 kings, “a whole forgotten dynasty of kings,” with the tomb of King Senwosret III being the oldest and the largest, said Wegner. 

The tombs at Abydos are younger than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which dates to 2500 BC, yet older than the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, which span the period between 1500 and 1000 BC, Wegner said. 

According to Wegner, ancient Egyptians stopped building pyramids and began instead to construct underground burial tombs due to a change in their religious beliefs and also in an attempt to keep out robbers.  “Many people think hiding the tomb underground without a pyramid on top of it helped to protect it,” he said. 

But Oppenheim suggests that ancient Egyptian consideration for building pyramids on top of tombs had more to do with the local landscape. They did not build pyramids in mountainous regions such as Abydos. “The mountains served as a marker that in some way was analogous to a pyramid,” she said.

______________________________________

tomb13General view of the tomb of the lost pharaoh Senebkay

 General view of the tomb of the lost pharaoh Senebkay. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

______________________________________

tomb12View through into the burial chamber of Senebkay

 View through into the burial chamber of Senebkay. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

_______________________________________

tomb14The skeleton of king Senebkay

 Above and below: The skeleton of Senebkay. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

tomb15Skeleton of Senebkay

____________________________________________________

A special artifact 

While visitors will be able to descend into the tombs and see the ancient architecture, the smaller artifacts that archaeologists found at Abydos will not go on display there, Wegner said. Most of these items are currently in storage. 

One of Wegner’s favorites is a birthing brick – the first such brick that had ever been found. He discovered it while excavating the house of the mayor in the ancient city (Wah-Sut) near the tombs. The brick depicts a woman holding a new-born child after giving birth. In ancient Egypt, women customarily stood on such bricks when they were in labor, he said. “We have ancient texts describing birth bricks, but no one had discovered one.” The brick dates from 1750 BC to 1800 BC. Although it was unearthed about 15 years ago, it has never been displayed to the public. Wegner said he is not particularly upset about that.  “You can open so many museums with the amount of stuff that has been excavated in Egypt, but a lot of stuff just doesn’t ever get displayed,” he said.  And although the brick is the first such item to have ever been discovered, Egyptian officials, says Wegner, were not particularly interested in it because it is not made from precious metals.

____________________________________

tomb17magical birth brick, photo of the main scene

The magical birth brick depicting the main scene. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

_____________________________________________________

tomb18Painted reconstruction of main scene on the birth brick

Painted reconstruction of the main scene on the birth brick. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum 

________________________________________________________

Excavations continue at Abydos

Wegner and his crew from the University of Pennsylvania are continuing to excavate. 

Archaeologists work by first using magnetometers to create a magnetic map of the area – pieces of pottery and ceramics have good magnetic conduction properties and are an indication that there is something underground, Wegner said. The magnetometer can also detect mud brick structures because mud has iron in it, while the sand itself is mostly silica and has no magnetic properties, Wegner added. (The device works well only after people clear away modern garbage, such as metal cans and coins.) 

After that, archaeologists start digging – with the help of their Egyptian workers. Everything, even the tops of the tombs, are typically buried five to six meters under the desert sand, Wegner said. “It’s not a place where you brush off a little bit of sand.” 

Wegner wants to determine if Senwosret’s tomb extends beyond the 200 meters already excavated. If so, it might be the largest tomb of an Egyptian king ever discovered, he said. 

He is also looking for a boat house. While excavating, he found a building with images of hundreds of boats carved into the walls. He says the building may have served as a burial chamber for the funeral boats that carried the pharaoh’s body to the tomb, but nothing remains of the boats themselves because the wood was valuable, so it was probably stolen.

________________________________________

tomb16A group of boat images

 The boat images uncovered in an excavated building at Abydos. Courtesy Josef Wegner and the Penn Museum

_____________________________________________________

What else is next at Abydos? Wegner suggests there is potentially more to discover at Abydos. “We know there are a bunch of other underground buildings in the area,” he said. 

Plenty of work for years to come.

__________________________

Readers can learn more about the Penn Museum at their website.

__________________________________

Advertisement

See the monumental discoveries at Abydos in person! Join Popular Archaeology Magazine and an Egyptologist on a specially organized land and Nile cruise tour of ancient Egypt’s most iconic sites, to include the Grand Egyptian Museum and the spectacular treasures of Tutankhamun, the tomb of Tutankhamun, the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, the necropolis of Saqqara, Abydos, the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, and many other iconic tomb and temple sites. This tour is planned for the late fall of 2026 or early spring of 2027. It includes an optional extension to Amman, Petra and the Dead Sea in Jordan. The cost of the 13 -day core Egypt tour is estimated to be between $3,500 and $4,400, excluding airfare.  Email populararchaeology@gmail.com to express interest and to receive more information!

The Inanimate Speakers Society of Rome

Professor Frank J. Korn has retired from his teaching position on the Classical Studies faculty at Seton Hall University.  He is a Fulbright Scholar at the American Academy in Rome and the author of nine books on various aspects of the Eternal City.  He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who as “a notable classical educator and writer.”  Recipient of the Princeton Prize for Distinguished Teaching, he resides with his wife Camille in Scotch Plains, N.J.  The couple’s three sons –  Frank, Ronald, and John and their families live nearby.  His latest book    Below Rome, the Story of the Catacombs    which he co-authored with his wife, is available on Amazon or from the publisher, St. Johann Press, Haworth, N.J.

 

Difficile est saturam

      Non scribere….”

                                …..Juvenal

The sardonic muckraker Juvenal claimed that in ancient Rome    with all its foibles, hypocrisy, elitism, and political corruption    one would be hard put to restrain from satirizing it all.  The Romans early on grew fond of that form of expression    and its practitioners    and boasted of their lampooning skills.  Quintilian, a master of the art, wrote:

Satura quidem tota nostra est.”

(Satire is indeed all ours.)

The poets Martial and Horace excelled at it too.  This literary genre of the Eternal City enjoyed a roaring revival a millennium later.  There were no political cartoonists in Renaissance Rome to torment people in high places.  But there did exist at the time a group of statue parlanti, talking statues with a flair for satire and a penchant for ridiculing the local authorities, civil, papal, and otherwise, not to mention the aristocracy, the egotistical, the smug.

Here is how it all began.  In the winter of 1501, a badly mutilated ancient Greek sculpture was unearthed during some work near Piazza Navona in Rome.  Numerous art scholars judged it to be the remnant of a group-carving from as far back as the third century B.C. depicting Menelaus supporting the slain Patroclus (from Homer’s Iliad’). An affluent churchman, Cardinal Oliverio Carafa, at once purchased the pitiful marble torso with the battered face and had it placed as an adornment for the north facade of his nearby residence, the Palazzo Braschi.  It has stood there ever since.

Each April 25th, the feast day of Saint Mark, the prelate would attach to the statue sayings in honor of the Evangelist.  Throughout the rest of the year, Carafa would encourage neighborhood students to affix to the pedestal their innocent poems and epigrams.  (In 1510 a certain Giacomo Mazzochi published a collection of the best.)

__________________________

The battered ancient statue set before the Palazzo Braschi. Peter Heeling, Wikimedia Commons

__________________________

It was soon after this, however, that the verses turned malevolent.  Written and posted anonymously and clandestinely in the dark of night, the irreverent commentaries targeted the rampant venalities, corruption, and nepotism of church and civic leaders and other pezzi grossi (big shots).

The prevailing wisdom suspected an impish hunchbacked, mischievous tailor by the name of Pasquino.  (His shop just across the street was known to be a gathering place for the city’s wits and punsters.)

Whenever the morning’s light brought forth a new satirical pronouncement    in impeccable Latin, no less –  word would spread throughout town and become the quote of the day.  This was all to the delight of the general populace and to the consternation of the ruling class.  No event, institution, or personage was exempt from the caustic pen of Pasquino.  Not even the pope was safe from the tailor’s slings and arrows.  For Pasquino was, you see, also the official tailor in the Vatican and thus privy to all the gossip in the 108-acre enclave.

One day, for example, when it became clear that Pope Julius II (1503-1513) was devoting more time and energy to military affairs than to Church matters, the statue of Menelaus    by this time affectionately called “Pasquino”    issued a pun on the mandate of Christ to the first pope:

TU ES PETRUS…ET TIBI DABO CLAVES

REGNI CAELORUM

(Thou art Peter…and I shall give unto you

The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.)

The tailor put it this way:

“Destiny erred, Julius, in giving you claves (keys).

It should have given you clavas (clubs).”

When Pope Paul III (1534) gave a generous honoraria to the Sistine Choir and then tried to silence the chatty statue, “Pasquino” railed:

“Ut canerent  data multa sunt.

Ut taceam quantum mihi, Paule, dabis?

(They were given much so they might sing.

How much will you give me, Paul, to be quiet?)

Around this time, another ancient statue, this one large and in mint condition, was dug up in ruins near the Forum.  Found in a reclining position over what was once apparently a fountain, it was thought to represent a river god, and was placed on the bustling street in front of the old Mamertine Prison.  The neighborhood wags baptized him “Marforio”.  The shabby “Pasquino” started to dialogue with the elegant deity.  One day when another sixteenth century pope imposed numerous new taxes, some on the most basic resources,  “Marforio,” preferring to communicate in Italian, posed this question:

“Perche metti ad asciugare la camicia di notte e

Non di giorno alla luce del sole?”

(Why do you hang out your laundry at night instead of the day when the sun shines?)

To which the annoyed Pasquino, a few blocks away in a district then called Campus Martius, replied:

“Perche di giorno, con l’aria che tira finerebbero

Per farmi la tassa del sole!”

(Because by day, with the political winds such as

They are, I would end up paying a Sun tax.)

And so it went, on almost a daily basis.  Appreciative Romans would dash from “Marforio” over to “Pasquino” to see what his witty pal’s retort would be.  (By the way, “Marforio” has, for the last two centuries, resided in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum.)

Pope Adrian VI, himself often a target of the pasquinades, grew so irritated by these exchanges that he ordered the original garrulous statue to be hammered to bits and tossed into the Tiber.  Fortunately cooler heads prevailed.  The poet Torquato Tasso convinced the pontiff that the statue’s fragmented corpse would re-emerge into “a thousand creaking lampooning frogs.” In short, Tasso implied, the age-old Roman love for satire would find a way.

The Talking Statue club grew in time to a membership of six old timers.  First came “Madama Lucrezia,” the top half of a colossus of a Roman matron, though many classical scholars think it to be of the Egyptian goddess Isis or perhaps of a priestess of that cult.  Madama has been loitering just off Piazza Venezia for centuries now. The buxom madama, the least loquacious of the club, apparently had a low pain threshold for folks who liked to show off their “vast” knowledge.  She simply could not bear the company of pseudo intellectuals, so one day at the break of dawn she delivered this Latin broadside at the whole lot of them:

“Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt,

Stulti eruditi videntur.”

(Those who wish to be seen as erudites

by fools, are seen as fools by erudites.)

In her early career a curious custom developed.  Roman men, when passing in front of Lucrezia often, in deference to her, either  gave a tip of the cap or blew a kiss.

Next came “Il Facchino” the water carrier, featuring a jaunty, tipsy old chap carrying a barrel of water from which he pours an endless stream into the basin of a wall fountain on Via Lata near the corner of Via del Corso.

“Pasquino” had this to say about his new comrade:

Ama il suo liquore di Bacco ma

Offre ai passanti solo acqua.”

(He loves the tasty beverage of Bacchus

But offers to passersby only water.)

”Il Facchino” which literally means “the porter” was the term also used for out of work fellows who scooped up water from the Tiber in kegs and delivered them to people’s homes.  This new cottage-industry came about when almost all the ancient aqueducts had by now ceased to function, necessitating the average Romans to get their water from the river.

This was exhausting work.  One sad sultry summer day, Signor Abbondio Rizio, a well known and beloved acquaiolo (as they were also called) died on the job.

The following morning “Il Facchino” epitomized the poor guy’s lot in life with this brief obituary:

“Portava quanto peso volle, visse quanto pote, ma un giorno nel portare un barile in spalla, mori.”

(He used to carry as heavy a load as he pleased,

        he made a living as much as he could, but one day

While hefting a large barrel on his shoulder, he passed away.)

Then there’s “Il Babuino,” near the Spanish Steps.  He’s called the Baboon because of his homely face and his unkemptness.  He too is part of a wall fountain and in the opinion of some archaeologists an effigy of Silenus, the half goat, half man comrade of the Greek god of wine, Dionysius.

And lastly the statue with the least seniority, “Abate Luigi” (Abbot Louis) the toga-clad statue often vandalized by decapitation. (He has undergone several head transplants through the years).  In the nineteenth century Luigi took up residence in the tranquil churchyard of Sant Andrea della Valle. (He got his name, incidentally, because of his resemblance to the abbot of the monastery attached to the church.)   He has this to say on his pedestal: 

“Fui della Roma Antica un cittadino

Ora Abate Luigi ognuno mi chiama

Conquistai con Marforio e Pasquino

Nelle satire urbani Eterna Fama

Ebbi offese, disgrazia, e sepoltura

Ma qui vita novella e alfin sicurezza.”

(I was a citizen of Ancient Rome

Now everyone calls me Abbot Louis.

I won with Marforio and Pasquino

eternal fame with urbane satires

I’ve been insulted, disgraced, and buried

but here I have a new life and at last safety.)

So it was out over the rooftops of Rome that these stone rascals    Il Congresso Degli Arguti, “The Congress of Wits,” as they liked to call themselves  – carried on their daily gabbing with one another.  They enjoyed puns, especially of their target’s name.  When Cardinal Giovanni Carafa became Pope Paul IV in 1555 “Pasquino” said:

“Accidenti!  Che vino forte in questa carafa.”

(Wow, what robust wine in this carafe.)

(Marforio’s rebuttal?)

Ti sbagli!  E aceto.

(You’re mistaken!  It’s vinegar.)

……….

Later that century, Pasquino the tailor went to his reward but “Pasquino” the statue rambled on through the ages, right up to the modern era.  For there were many amateur satirists in the city eager to perpetuate the infernal jabbering.  The Romans referred to these anonymous authors as the pasquinisti.

Pope Urban VIII (1623-44), of the noble and wealthy Barberini clan, launched an ambitious program of monumentalizing Papal Rome, plundering the ruins of Imperial Rome for marble and bronze.  By this time the epigrams had shifted back to Latin, thus causing this outcry from “Pasquino:”

“Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecerunt Barberini”

(What the Barbarians failed to do, the Barberini did)

The other arguti also inveighed against the looting from the wreckage of Old Rome.  So then, not even threats of surveillance, of imprisonment, of execution by drowning could put the brakes on the little secret inanimate society of wits.

Later popes loved the city’s Egyptian obelisks and spent great sums moving them around town and crowning each with the Cross, symbol of Christianity’s triumph.  With the quality of life at the time not the greatest for the middle and lower classes, the society could not restrain themselves:

“Noi abbiamo basta di obelischi e fontane!

Pane e che vorremmo, pane, pane, pane!”

        (Enough already with obelisks and fountains!

Bread is what we would like, bread, bread, bread)

In 1655 Pope Innocent X had as his care-giver in his final illness a sister-in-law, Olimpia Maldachini.  Her well-known craving for more wealth impelled her to rob two little boxes of cash, intended for the poor, tucked under the pontiff’s bed.  News got out.  Some punster got to Pasquino and posted a devilish play on her name with this Latin-gem:

“Olim pia, sed nunc impia”

(Once pious, she is now impious.)

From 1798 to 1808, Napoleon’s occupation of Rome was part of his ambitious scheme to annex the Papal States and expand his empire.  Marforio could not contain his contempt when the little emperor confiscated many precious works of art:

“Tutti i francesi sono ladri!”

(All the French are robbers!)

Pasquino, in an exquisitely clever play on the real culprit’s surname answered his pal:

“Non tutti, ma buona parte”

(Not all, but a good part… of them)

The acerbic statues were still clucking late into that same century.  Hawthorne wrote in his diary while sojourning in Italy in 1859:

“Thence we passed by the pathetic battered torso of

Pasquino…on our way to the bridge of the Angels.”

And on through the twentieth century the marble commentators remained iconoclastically active.  When Il Duce in 1929 ordered the demolition of blocks of historic Medieval buildings in the section of Rome still called Il Borgo to make way for his fancy new boulevard, the Via della Conciliazione which leads from the Tiber to the Vatican, the Romans, who tend to cherish their past, were outraged.  An anonymous pasquinista had “Pasquino” speak for the people with this placard around his neck:

“Quod non fecerunt Barberini, fecit Mussolini.”

(What the Barberinis didn’t do, Mussolini did.)

When Hitler visited Rome as the guest of Mussolini in May 1938, the proud host had much of the city festooned with buntings and other gaudy decorations.  This did not sit well with the local gentry either.

So they took to the ancient rough prototype of today’s platforms of social media, by having Pasquinoand company air their grievances for them with cardboard signs saying:

Roma de travertino

Vestita da cartone

Saluta l’imbianchino

Suo prossimo padrone

(Rome of travertine

All decked out in papier mache

Greets the house-painter,

Her next landlord.)

The six Arguti are still dwelling at their usual sites in Rome, and still occasionally offering commentary on the city’s political and social goings-on.  For there are still plenty of pasquinisti hanging around only too eager to give voice to Pasquino, Marforio, Lucrezia, the Baboon, the Facchino, and even the monastic Luigi.

The reputation of this mischievous squad eventually spread throughout Italy and even across Europe.  One Swiss clergyman by the name of Jean Pierre de Crousaz (1663-1750) who had been to Rome and had seen and “heard” the ancient gossipers told his countrymen upon his return:

“These satirists of true genius who are warmed by a genuine indignation of vice, and whose censures are conducted with candor and truth, merit the appreciation of every friend to virtue.  They are a sort of supplement to the legislative authorities, assisting the unavoidable defects of all legal and social institutions for the regulation of manners and striking terror, even where the divine prohibitions themselves are held in “contempt.”

By the second century of their existence and local celebrity, the half-dozen stone gadflies now found themselves being cited and quoted all over the continent.  The little tailor’s legacy had a long reach.  The original Pasquino bequeathed to and taught his legions of fans the word pasquinade, that succinct amusingly polemical way of versing, with the high and the mighty as targets, which generations of Romans, and tourists who were lucky enough to have visited Rome Eternal, passed on to posterity.  The stinging, biting satirical form had become an international pastime, until it was gradually obsolesced by the invention and popularity of the political cartoon, and especially by today’s social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, et al.

Yes, the six mischievous marble codgers of Rome have all been on pension for quite some time now.  Yet, if truth be told, every once in a blue moon they will come out of retirement for a day or two to offer their take on the latest whiff of misbehavior emanating from Parliament, the Vatican, or the Campidoglio (City Hall).

__________________________

Advertisement

EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON!
Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!

Time Traveling in Philadelphia

Ana Adeler is a free-lance writer and contributor to Popular Archaeology Magazine on travel and museums.

Some places don’t need grand introductions.

They simply exist, quietly waiting for you to notice them. They don’t shout. They don’t beg. They just stand there, steadfast, like an old friend waiting at a café table, knowing you’ll eventually find your way back. The Penn Museum is one of those places.

The building itself is a contradiction—imposing, yet welcoming. Its northern Italian Renaissance-style facade is kissed by time, softened by ivy, and bathed in a Philadelphia sun that seems to hold the weight of centuries. The entrance gates, curiously Asian in design, feel like a passage to another world. And maybe that’s exactly what they are.

_______________________

Image courtesy Penn Museum

_______________________

Step inside, and suddenly the modern world dissolves. The air shifts. It’s quieter here, as though history has muted the usual chaos of life. The walls, high and arched, have been listening for over a century—absorbing the footfalls of professors, the murmurs of schoolchildren, the sharp intakes of breath from travelers who realize they have stumbled into something seemingly sacred.

And oh, the things these walls have seen….

Like a royal greeting, a colossal granite sphinx of Ramses II meets me. It looms, its stone lips curved into a knowing half-smile, as if humored by the transient nature of human worries. It has outlived empires, dynasties, entire languages. It watches, patient and eternal, as visitors lean in to decipher the hieroglyphs engraved artfully and with almost unbelievable precision into its hard granite surface. Their hands unconsciously mirror the reverence of those who chiseled them into stone thousands of years ago.

__________________________

Above and below, views of the sphinx of Ramses II.

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

Turn a corner, and Mesopotamia rises from the dust. Fragile clay tablets rest behind glass, each tiny wedge of cuneiform script a part of human utterance from a world that no longer exists. They record grain sales, love letters, prayers, debts—proof that people, no matter the century, are forever preoccupied with hunger, devotion, and money.

In the Buddhist gallery, thangka paintings unfold like silk secrets, their colors impossibly vivid, the brushstrokes delicate as a breath. In another room, Chinese musical instruments stand silent, waiting for a hand to pluck them back into song.

__________________________

The Harrison Rotunda at the Penn Museum, with the author at center for scale. It showcases the Chinese antiquities.

__________________________

Steps away, there is the restoration lab—a place that feels part science fiction, part quiet cathedral. A glass barrier separates the living from the long-gone, but here, death is not the end. Behind the glass, a conservator bends over an Egyptian mummy, his movements precise, reverent. He is not trying to revive it, nor improve it, nor give it new life. His job is to ensure it remains exactly as it was, to hold time still, as if by sheer will. Once a day, he opens the door to visitors, answers questions with the calm patience of someone who has spent years listening to the echoes of the past.

Then, I step into Rome.

Not the Rome of Vespa scooters and café terraces, but the Rome of emperors, gladiators, and merchants haggling in the shadow of the Colosseum. The Roman World Gallery hums with the energy of a civilization that refused to be forgotten. Bronze helmets, dulled by time but still fierce, sit next to delicate glassware that somehow survived the centuries. There are coins, each bearing the face of a ruler who once controlled the known world—now just names in history books. The smooth marble of a sculpted bust still holds the ghost of its subject’s ambition, the chiseled jawline of a senator or general who believed, for a time, that power was eternal.

But nothing is.

The next gallery is proof of that.

___________________________

Above and below: Views in the Roman Gallery.

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

The Etruscan Gallery is quieter, heavier, as though history itself holds its breath here. The Etruscans—brilliant, mysterious, and swallowed by the rising tide of Rome. They left behind no great empire, no grand myths carved into marble. What remains is more intimate: ceramic vessels adorned with intricate scenes of feasts and battles, jewelry so delicate I almost hesitate to believe it once graced the neck of a woman long turned to dust. Their tombs, filled with painted visions of the afterlife, tell us they were not afraid of death. They embraced it as part of the journey.

Here, you stand in front of an ancient sarcophagus. The figures carved on its lid—a man and woman, reclining as if at a banquet—seem almost at ease. Their expressions are not of fear but of understanding, a quiet knowing that the end is not really an end at all, just another passage.

___________________________

Above and below: Views in the Etruscan Gallery

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

Outside, the garden hums with life. The fountain sings its quiet song, leaves rustle in the breeze, and the sculptures stand, frozen yet expressive, as if they too are considering the weight of history. Here, time is fluid—ancient and modern, static and moving, all at once.

And so, I walk away, my mind richer, my soul slightly heavier. Not because the museum is a place of burdens, but because it has given me something profound: the realization that history is not distant. It breathes in stone and script, in pigment and melody. It breathes in me.

 

And now, wherever I go, I will carry a small piece of it with me.

___________________________

Editor’s Note: For more information about the Penn Museum and how to visit, see the museum’s website.

Egyptian Magic and Creation: An Interview with Dr. Kelly Accetta Crowe

Richard Marranca interviews archaeologist Dr. Kelly Accetta Crowe. Kelly has a BA in Archaeology and Art History from the University of Virginia, a Master of Philosophy in Egyptology and a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge. Thresholds of the Gods: Doorways and Movement in New Theban Temples was the title of her dissertation. During the time she worked on her doctorate, she spent time in Luxor studying sites. Kelly has worked on the Middle Kingdom Theban Project. She has also excavated with the Amarna Project, the New Kingdom Research Foundation, and the Deep History of the Asyut Region project (The British Museum). She has worked for the Headstone Manor & Museum and the British Museum. Her main areas of interest are stone built architecture, funerary material culture, art, and the connection between image and power.

The following is the substance of that interview….           

___________________________________________

 

RM (Richard Marranca): What is heka, and was it involved in the creation of the world?

KC (Kelly Accetta Crowe): Heka was a divine creative force. It lived in the bellies of the gods, and its power brought divine thought or words into reality. It was used to create the universe and also to maintain ma’at, the concept of balance, truth, and justice. Humans did not inherently have heka, but it could be channeled by those who had access to divine knowledge on the working of heka.

RM: Can you tell us the purpose of creation stories to the ancient Egyptians? And what are the sources of these creation stories?

KC: This begs the question, what is the purpose of creation stories in any culture? I think we can really only say that these narratives explained things seen in the world around them, and also the power of the gods, particularly the major city gods around which most of the myths were built. Whether Egyptians believed them verbatim, saw them as metaphors, fiction, etc. is impossible to know and, like today, levels of belief probably also varied amongst the population.

The creation myths are alluded to (earlier in history) or written out in full episodes (later in history) on literary papyri, statues, temple walls, etc. However, we never see the creation of a ‘scripture’ like in modern monotheistic religions, or any form of standardized texts which were used across Egypt.

RM: The Hermopolitan cosmology arose at the site of Hermopolis. Can you tell us about the story and the city? Is this an interesting place to visit? Can you tell us about a favorite excavation here?

KC: The provincial capital of Hermopolis was called Khemenu, from the word for eight, khemen. The Hermopolitan myth speaks of four pairs of gods which form the basis of creation. The gods were originally lost in the waters of nothingness, and when they came together, the upheaval formed the mound upon which the sun emerged, and life began.

Hermopolis later became the seat of the god Thoth. This is where the city got its Greek name, Thoth = Hermes = Hermopolis (city of Hermes). It became a vibrant and important city during the Roman period.

___________________________

Hermopolis Basilica. Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

___________________________

The British Museum excavated at the site in the 1980s, both documenting previously unpublished excavations performed by other teams as well as uncovering new material. The publications include information on the pharaonic temple to Thoth, later Roman sites of worship, Coptic churches, part of the town dating to the Third Intermediate Period, and cemeteries dating to the First Intermediate Period.

RM: Why is the sun central to Egyptian religion? Can you tell us about the Heliopolitan Ennead? And can you tell us about Heliopolis?

KC: The sun, along with the Nile, was considered the main life-granting force in ancient Egypt. The first sunrise was said to occur at the moment of creation. Heliopolis (Greek ‘City of the Sun’), was the location of a major dual temple to the creator god Atum and the sun god Ra, often seen syncretized as Atum-Ra. Unfortunately, little remains today except a beautiful obelisk.

The creation myth of this city focused on the birth of nine gods – Atum (Atum-Ra), Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys – hence the term Ennead, meaning ‘the nine’. The gods correspond to the creation of the parts of the world, particularly Shu (air), Tefnut (moisture), Geb (earth), Nut (sky). This myth was one of the most prevalent in Egypt, and the gods featured in it played major roles in the religious, magical, and political landscape.

_____________________________

Workers excavating in the Temple of Mnevis. In the foreground there is an open trench in the temple’s floor. Angelo Sesana Archive. CC0 1.0 Universal, Wikimedia Commons

_____________________________

RM: I recall that Memphis was created by the first pharaoh, Menes, and that it had its creation story – or Memphite Theology. Can you tell us about the story? Can you tell us about this early capital and any great excavations you’d like to add?

KC:  In this story, Ptah, god of craftsmen, speaks the world into existence. His heart (seat of intelligence) thinks of an idea, which he utters aloud. His heka causes these words to come into existence as hieroglyphs and all elements of the world around him.

____________________________

Statue of the God Ptah. CC0 1.0 Universal, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________

Much of the exploration of Memphis focuses on the surviving elements of the large temples to Ptah erected by the kings of the New Kingdom and later. The most famous part of Memphis is its necropolis, located in what is today called Saqqara.

RM: Could you tell us how temples are a microcosm of the cosmos and how their rituals and artwork regenerated the cosmos – kept it going?

KC: The physical structure of a temple was said to echo the early universe. At the heart of the temple was the dark enclosed sanctuary which held the god’s statue upon the raised mound of creation. The large papyrus-columned courts evoked the early marshlands, and great horizon-shaped gates aligned with the east/west axis represented the cyclical nature of the rising and setting of the sun. Daily and annual rituals performed within the temple aimed to placate the god, and thus ensure that cosmic balance (ma’at, in Egyptian) was maintained. The artwork depicted these very rituals, which magically ensured their correct performance for all eternity.

_______________________________

Edfu Temple. CC0 1.0 Universal, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________

RM: Are other gods (aside from the major creation stories) also creator gods? Can I ask you about the Amarna Revolution from Akhenaten? How was the Aten involved in creation? Did Akhenaten (and Nefertiti) have a role in creation?

KC: There are many snippets of myths which suggest that most ‘city’ gods had a form of creation story. The Aten was credited with all creation, from the rain of foreign lands to the first breath of babies. This is documented in the Great Hymn to the Aten. The Hymn also states that the Aten apprised Akhenaten of its designs. It’s clear that the Aten was alone at the moment of creation, but Akhenaten was involved in maintaining the world created by the Aten.

____________________________

Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Daughters. Egyptian Museum, Berlin. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________

RM: Does Tut’s Tomb have creation stories?

KC: Not as such. On the golden wooden shrines which surrounded the sarcophagus, there are excerpts from Chapter/Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead. This very enigmatic passage includes allusions to the Heliopolitan creation myth, but not in narrative form.

____________________________

Book of the Dead spell 17 from the Papyrus of Ani. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________

Cover Image, Top Left: TheDigitalArtist, Pixabay

Archaeologists discover historical link between inequality and sustainability

Durham University—Inequality has been linked to human sustainability for over 10,000 years, according to new findings by archaeologists.

The study* lead by Professor Dan Lawrence, of Durham University in the UK, found that across ten millennia, more unequal distributions of wealth correlated with longer-term human settlement. 

However, the team are keen to stress that one factor is not causally dependent on the other, giving hope that humankind’s survival is not linked to ever increasing inequality.

The research is part of a Special Feature of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), entitled Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality.

Sustainability is defined by the UN as ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. The study investigated the relationship the two key aspects of this definition, continuity and equality.

The team used data on house size from across the world, covering the last 10,000 years, analysing records of over 47,500 homes across over 2,990 archaeological sites.

Differences in house size were used as a measure of inequality during different time periods. This data was then analysed alongside information on the duration of occupation, in simple terms how long people lived in a settlement before it was abandoned.

The findings revealed a correlation between the two measures – with more unequal settlements (as measured through house sizes) tending to persist for longer. However, this relationship was not found to be causal, and instead both factors rose with the increased scale and complexity of human systems. 

The research team believe the findings could help inform interventions to improve future sustainability.

Speaking about the research, Professor Dan Lawrence, Department of Archaeology at Durham University said: “The UN definition of sustainability references our societies not only continuing to exist but becoming more equal.

“We wanted to understand the relationship between those two aspects and ask whether equality or inequality is historically more sustainable.

“What we found is that, as humankind’s systems become larger and more complex, inequality has tended to increase alongside longer persistence. But the two are not mutually dependant, showing that humankind might be able to achieve sustainable persistence without the need for increased inequality.

“It is not the case that inequality is simply a necessary by-product of building complex, sustainable societies.

“We need to be aware of, and attentive to the historical interplay between inequality and sustainability.

“At a time of ever-increasing wealth inequality and sustainability challenges including climate change, the lessons from the past 10,000 years could be invaluable for helping us to achieve a more equal, truly sustainable future.”

The study was authored by researchers from across Europe and the USA, drawing on a database collected by archaeologists from across the world. It is published as part of a special feature of PNAS, which has examined the origins and drivers of inequality from multiple angles.

Each of the studies has utilized a specially compiled data set on house sizes across the world from the last 10,000 years, as well as information on societies across time, such as structures, hierarchies, agriculture etc.

Professor Dan Lawrence, Department of Archaeology, Durham, has also been co-author on eight other papers as part of this special feature.

_____________________________

Article Source: Durham University news release.

*Housing inequality and settlement persistence are associated across the archaeological record, Lawrence D, et al, is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2400696122.

Cover Image, Top Left: tunaolger, Pixabay

_____________________________

Advertisement

EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON!
Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!

Sophisticated pyrotechnology in the Ice Age: This is how humans made fire tens of thousands of years ago

University of ViennaWhether for cooking, heating, as a light source or for making tools – it is assumed that fire was essential for the survival of people in the Ice Age. However, it is puzzling that hardly any well-preserved evidence of fireplaces from the coldest period of the Ice Age in Europe has been found so far. A group of scientists led by the University of Algarve and the University of Vienna has now been able to shed some light on the mystery of Ice Age fire. Their analysis of three hearths at a prehistoric site in Ukraine shows that people of the last Ice Age built different types of hearths and used mainly wood, but possibly also bones and fat, to fuel their fires. The results have been published in the journal Geoarchaeology.

_________________________

Archaeological research shows that Homo sapiens in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic period, between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago, used fire in a variety of ways. “Fire was not just about keeping warm; it was also essential for cooking, making tools and for social gatherings,” says Philip R. Nigst, one of the lead authors and an archaeologist at the University of Vienna. It has often been assumed that fire was essential for the survival of hunter-gatherers in Ice Age Europe. Surprisingly, however, there is little well-preserved evidence of fire use from the coldest period of the Ice Age – between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago – in Europe. “We know that fire was widespread before and after this period, but there is little evidence from the height of the Ice Age,” says William Murphree, lead author of the study and geoarchaeologist at the University of Algarve.

The current study* is all the more significant because the scientists discovered and analyzed three hearths at a prehistoric site in Ukraine. This was possible thanks to a series of innovative geoarchaeological techniques. Through microstratigraphic analysis, micromorphology and colorimetric analysis, the team identified three simple, flat, wood-fired hearths. One interesting finding from this was that these fires reached temperatures of more than 600°C, which proves sophisticated mastery of pyrotechnics even in the face of extreme environmental stresses.

The analysis also shows that humans used wood as their main fuel during the peak of the Ice Age, with charcoal analyses indicating spruce wood. However, other fuels such as bone or fat could have been used. “Some of the animal bones found at the site were burnt in a fire with a temperature of over 650 degrees Celsius. We are currently investigating whether they were used as fuel or just accidentally burned,” explains Marjolein D. Bosch, one of the authors and an zooarchaeologist at the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum Vienna.

All three fireplaces are open and flat. However, the new results suggest that the use of fire was sophisticated, as the fireplaces were likely to have been built and used differently in different seasons. One of the three fireplaces is larger and thicker, suggesting that higher temperatures were achieved here. “People perfectly controlled the fire and knew how to use it in different ways, depending on the purpose of the fire. But our results also show that these hunter-gatherers used the same place at different times of the year during their annual migrations,” explains Nigst.

Despite these new findings, the small number of fireplaces from the Last Glacial Maximum remains puzzling. “Was most of the evidence destroyed by the ice-age-typical, alternating freezing and thawing of the soil?” asks Murphree. “Or did people not find enough fuel during the Last Glacial Maximum? Did they not use fire, but instead relied on other technological solutions?” adds Nigst. By further uncovering the role of fire in human evolution, the researchers hope to shed light on what is arguably one of the most fundamental technologies that has shaped our species’ success in populating every corner of this planet.

_____________________________

Excavation site Korman’ 9 located at the shore of the Dnister river in Ukraine. Philip R. Nigst

_____________________________

The large fireplace 1 during the excavation. Philip R. Nigst

_____________________________

The large fireplace 1 covered by 2.5 metres of loess sediments. Philip R. Nigst

_____________________________

Section through the large fireplace 1. Philip R. Nigst

_____________________________

Article Source: University of Vienna news release.

Investigating a Bronze Age Mystery: A Cemetery Full of Princes, but No Palaces in Sight

Brenna R. Hassett, PhD, is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Central Lancashire and a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum, London. In addition to researching the effects of changing human lifestyles on the human skeleton and teeth in the past, she writes for a more general audience about evolution and archaeology, including the Times (UK) top 10 science book of 2016 Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death, and her most recent book, Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood. She is also a co-founder of TrowelBlazers, an activist archive celebrating the achievements of women in the “digging” sciences.

Perched on the edge of a river near the city of Siirt, Türkiye, is an archaeological site that offers a chance to completely rethink one of the most complex human stories: the development of the world’s first cities and states. Sitting up in the rugged flanks of the Botan Valley, a series of fingerling rivers run between the hills, eventually joining with the mighty Tigris River as it flows south through what archaeologists once called “the cradle of civilization.”

This cradle is the land between two rivers, Mesopotamia—the starting point for the agricultural villages that would grow in size and complexity until some 5,000 years ago. These villages became cities and then the world’s first empires, witnessing developments like bureaucracy and giant construction projects that we often label “civilization.”

The answer to why our species should change our ecological niche so radically is one of the most important in anthropological science. Going from foraging to deified kings in a few thousand years seems like a revolution, and indeed, it has been called “the urban revolution.” But what happened in Mesopotamia to prompt such revolutionary changes? Arguments rage; was it a result of the environment? Agricultural surplus? Dense populations? Religious ideology or technological innovation? Priests, princes, or plenty?

The only way to answer these questions is to dig deep, and this is what archaeologists have done for hundreds of years in the tall mounds of built-up mudbrick that are the telltale signs of the ancient cities of Mesopotamia. What they have found in the long march up to the development of cities and kings is a confusing story of increasing complexity, and one of the most striking ways to understand this is through the treatment of the dead.

The Royal Cemetery of Ur was discovered in 1922 by renowned archaeologists Sir Leonard Woolley and his wife Katharine. Tomb after tomb of lavishly appointed burials containing prestige objects were uncovered in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur. It was an extraordinary dig, with hundreds of workmen uncovering thousands of bodies. Some of these bodies were richly adorned with jewelry and markers of their status in life—laid out in elaborate tableaux with their precious objects and accoutrement like chariots the cattle drew—in 16 of the “royal” graves uncovered by Woolley, bodies of other human beings were found. The finds in the Royal Cemetery were so sensational that the newspapers of the time ran constant stories about the progress of the dig, and celebrities like Agatha Christie went to visit the site (and gain inspiration for her novel Murder in Mesopotamia).

What Woolley had uncovered was a strange new burial practice that had become the fashion in Ur just as it became what we might now recognize as a city-state: a dense settlement of people organized around individuals and groups with different abilities to direct the course of their societies; priests and kings. In the hundred years that followed, archaeologists have tried to piece together the answers to the question surrounding the extraordinary burials at Ur, where sacrificed wealth, animals, and people appear just when the entire organization of society shifts toward hierarchy and top-down control.

Valuable objects placed in graves are often one of the clues archaeologists use to work out who had higher status in the past, and when we start to see outrageous differences in the value of the goods buried in the earth with different people, we suspect it reflects some differences in the living society as well. But these valuable deposits are not limited to precious metals and exotic trade goods; at Ur, they also include human bodies. Here, we see a new type of society, one that has the power to discard something as valuable as a human life just to decorate a grave. Many have argued that human sacrifice is one of the hallmarks of a new type of political control—throughout time, human sacrifice often appears as societies become more stratified and centrally controlled.

What, then, can a mound of earth on the outskirts of this “cradle of civilization” offer to the story of how humans became enmeshed in cities and states? Quite a lot, it turns out. Başur Höyük in Türkiye is a tell site, a mound comprised of thousands and thousands of years of the remnants of human activity, stretching from 7,000 years ago into very recent times. It would not have garnered much attention outside of archaeological circles but for the findings of recent excavations led by Ege University’s professor Haluk Sağlamtimur.

He and his team began uncovering another early cemetery on the mound, radiocarbon dated to between 3,100-2,800 BC, preceding the extraordinary flourishes of Ur by some 500 years. And while the cemetery at Başur Höyük does not have the wealth of gold that the Royal Cemetery of Ur contained, it does have huge numbers of elaborate objects buried alongside the dead—pots, pins, precious copper alloy metal decorations and weapons, and hundreds of thousands of beads. Not just material wealth was sacrificed—in many of the graves bodies were placed carefully around the main burials as well.

What Başur Höyük does not have, however, is a palace or a kingdom full of people who could be impressed by human sacrifice. When the “royal” graves of Başur Höyük were made, the place was almost completely abandoned. It is hard to argue that the “royalty” we see in places like Ur, where we think political power was first concentrated, is anything like the “royalty” we see at Başur Höyük. There are no dense populations settled here to control and manage, so what is the role of individuals who are so special that they require enormous sacrifice upon their deaths?

Many of the burials contain very young individuals, 12 or 13 years old; they could not have acquired the wealth—or the power it represents—in the graves in their own right during their short lives. Finding “princely” burials without a palace in sight at Başur Höyük shows us how an unassuming archaeological find can upend our entire understanding of how our human societies became what they are—and offers us the chance to create new explanations for the social and cultural revolutions of our past.

Image Top Left: An ancient mound of Mesopotamia. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

_____________________________

This article was produced by Human Bridges.

Lustrous Surfaces: Easy on the Eyes, Easy on the Nervous System

Irina Matuzava is a contributor to the Human Bridges project.

Our ancestors’ ability to recognize water sources was crucial to their survival. As a result, the attraction to lustrous materials is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and is evident among prehistoric artifacts, ancient civilizations, and modern consumer culture.

During the Pliocene Epoch, early hominins likely traveled between semi-permanent rain pools, restricting their movement to warmer and wetter regions. During the Late Pleistocene, humid forests declined and grassland-savanna habitats expanded.1 Thus, the ability to detect water sources became extremely important. In the dry savanna conditions of East Africa, early humans relied on small lakes and rain pools to survive seasonal droughts, and many fossil hominid remains have been found near ancient lakeshores, supporting the idea that access to water played a key role in early human migration. The savanna hypothesis suggests that the expansion of African grasslands led directly to the divergence of hominins from apes and the emergence of the genus Homo.2

Natural selection likely chose individuals who could recognize water and wet surfaces, and, according to evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk’s radiator theory, the success of finding drinking water daily to prevent dehydration and conserve energy played a substantial role in shaping hominin evolution.3

Water still significantly impacts our neurological system, influencing physiological and psychological well-being. Psychology professor Richard Coss and his former student, Craig Keller, conducted a pair of studies published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2022 showing that “gazing at bodies of water can help lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and increase feelings of relaxation.”4

The first of Coss and Keller’s studies showed that viewing a swimming pool lowers heart rate and blood pressure versus looking at a street sign and a tree in a parking lot.

The second study measured heart rate and blood pressure when viewing six sites with different amounts of visible water. Viewing water compared to the adjacent ground produced effects consistent with a relaxation response or a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure. Moreover, the studies found that looking at wider portions of water produced higher states of relaxation than narrow portions of water, suggesting that abundant amounts of water have a greater potential to limit dehydration. Clear water also produced a higher state of relaxation than murky water, which may be linked to the health of the water, as clear water is less likely to contain harmful bacteria and produce an unfavorable future state, such as illness.5

Meanwhile, a 2010 study by Richard Coss investigated the connection between glossy surfaces and their association with water or wetness. Coss designed an experiment using four different papers with varying surface finishes: matte watercolor paper, glossy silk-screen paper, gritty sandpaper, and sparkly glitter paper designed to be reminiscent of an ocean surface. The study’s participants were asked to examine the surfaces using a questionnaire to assess their wet and dry connotations as well as their overall attitude toward each paper type.

The results demonstrated that glossy surfaces appear significantly wetter than sparkling surfaces, and both the glossy and sparkling surfaces were perceived as wetter than the matte and sandy finishes. The participants’ assessment of the sparkling surface, having been rated lower on the wetness scale than the glossy silk-screen surface, suggests that sparkle does not consistently indicate the presence of moisture.6

This discrepancy may stem from the historical uncertainty of sparkling surfaces as an indicator of water since sparkly surfaces can be found in both pools of water and dry materials, such as quartz crystals and other rocky formations. Sparkly surfaces, while being visually stimulating, do not reliably indicate wetness unless they are accompanied by a glossy visual texture. The study’s findings reinforce the point that glossy surfaces convey strong optical information about moisture.

Some researchers have previously assumed that children’s aesthetic preferences were highly influenced by media consumption created by adults, along with innate and learned preferences. However, other research has found that many of these preferences, especially regarding human and animal faces, may develop in early infancy.7 Researchers Katrien Meert, Mario Pandelaere, and Vanessa M. Patrick conducted a series of experiments—published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in 2014—to expand upon this innate quality of having certain aesthetic preferences and establish that there is an inherent preference for glossy surfaces among humans.

Their first experiment demonstrated the preference for glossiness among both adults and children. Leaflets were given to participants, half printed on glossy paper and the other half on matte or non-glossy paper. The participants were asked to arrange the leaflets according to their preference, and the results showed a statistically significant preference for glossy leaflets over non-glossy ones. The latter half of the first experiment investigated the preference for glossiness in young children, using pictures of Santa Claus, half of which were glossy and the other half non-glossy. The children also significantly preferred glossy pictures over non-glossy pictures.

The second experiment tested whether the preference for glossiness was related to the content of the images presented on glossy paper. A random combination of four landscapes was provided to the participants, half printed on glossy paper and the other half on non-glossy paper. This was done to evaluate either the image’s content, the type of paper, or both. The type of paper influenced the responses of all respondents, and glossy images obtained a higher “liking” score. When the type of paper changed, all participants changed their preferences to the image on glossy paper, regardless of the participants’ previous choices and the depicted landscapes.8 The two experiments show that liking glossiness manifests before exposure to contemporary cultural stereotypes.

The longstanding affinity for gloss and luster is showcased well by the Aurignacian culture, which is marked by a greater diversification within toolmaking and artistic innovation. This culture spread from the Atlantic Coast to the Iranian Plateau and Western Eurasia and spanned from 43,000 to 30,000 years ago, during which Homo sapiens produced objects of artistic representation.

Luster is a common shared quality of the raw materials chosen by the Aurignacian to make personal ornaments.9 Such materials included ivory, soapstone, talc, chlorite, mother of pearl, amber, and even polished tooth enamel from adult human teeth. Ivory is lustrous when manipulated through polishing and was often found during this period, especially in the form of basket-shaped beads. Soapstone had no technological purpose and was not found anywhere before the Aurignacian culture, yet it was sourced from the faraway Pyrenees Mountains, presumably for its surface and visual appeal. Talc and chlorite have a soapy texture when polished, mother of pearl is shiny and iridescent, and the Aurignacian produced some of the oldest known amber pendants.

According to Randall White, early humans manipulated materials to create objects for visual pleasure, a phenomenon exemplified by the members of the Aurignacian culture who actively sought out and crafted objects with a lustrous sheen. Another example comes from the Blombos Cave in South Africa, which dates from 82,000 to 75,000 years ago. People here produced evidence regarding the preference for glossy textures even before the Aurignacian culture. An analysis of 28 bone tools from the cave identified three carefully polished points. The high polish gives a distinctive appearance to these artifacts, but the high shine has no apparent function and was likely done to give the points “added value.”10

In southwest France, excavations across multiple archaeological sites have uncovered polished, spherical gravels dating to the Upper Gravettian and Solutrean periods. These gravels have garnered interest because of their lustrous appearance and, in some instances, deliberate placement. The 2023 journal article “Multiproxy Analysis of Upper Paleolithic Lustrous Gravels Supports Their Anthropogenic Use” studied key sites such as Fourneau du Diable, Casserole, Pech de la Boissière, Laugerie Haute, and the Landry site, which was excavated in 2011.

Detailed analysis of these gravels confirms that their polished surfaces were intentional modifications. Experimental replication of the polishing process was done by tumbling gravels with animal skins or leather, ocher, and fat. In contrast, abrasion against silt from the Landy site did not produce the same results and ruled out environmental causes of weathering. Furthermore, the uniform amount or degree of shine on each archaeological gravel supported the hypothesis that they were deliberately selected, manipulated, and curated over time.

The high concentration of lustrous gravels in areas associated with domestic activities suggests that their placement was purposeful and meaningful within prehistoric communities. The deliberate selection and modification of these gravels indicate that during the Upper Paleolithic, humans actively pursued and valued lustrous surfaces. These findings align with the broader evidence of prehistoric humans’ appreciation of shiny surfaces.11

Throughout history, many ancient civilizations flourished on riverbanks and in river valleys, such as the Sumerians and the Indus Valley Civilization—reliable access to fresh water supported agriculture, trade, and large population growth. The evolutionary preference for both water and glossy surfaces remains evident in modern human behavior, as many modern cities are situated near water, and the pursuit of shine persists.

People are consistently drawn to landscapes featuring water in both reality and paintings. Children prefer paintings depicting water as a central element even at a young age, according to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 1983.12 Real estate trends also reflect this bias, as homes with aquatic views, whether lakes, rivers, or oceans, are significantly more desirable and often valued at higher prices. A pair of studies published in 2010 investigating preferences in both natural and built environments showcased a strong preference for places incorporating aquatic features and a stronger willingness to book a hotel room with water views.13 Individuals also tend to associate water with positive memories, linking it to childhood experiences such as swimming and playing near streams.14

Author Wallace J. Nichols explores water as a “therapeutic landscape” in his book, Blue Mind, which analyzes studies that suggest being near water can have powerful effects on the human psyche.15 The book provides evidence that water generates a meditative state more powerful than hypnosis techniques and makes us healthier, happier, and more creative.

The association between glossiness and luxury is prevalent in modern marketing strategies. Research by Rui (Juliet) Zhu and Joan Meyers-Levy explores how display surfaces influence the perceptions of products from the consumers’ perspective. They demonstrated that the material beneath a product can alter how trendy, natural, or modern it appears. These results suggest that the glossiness of a store display, when comparing shiny glass versus wood, has a positive impact on the products displayed on it and increases the connotation of modernity.16

Water and our gravitation toward its associated textures have shaped our aesthetic preferences and many aspects of our material culture. The connection between survival, comfort, and glossy surfaces can be further leveraged in various design and mental health applications beyond aesthetics.

Understanding the evolutionary basis of the preference for symmetry, gloss, and luster can allow designers and mental health professionals to create environments that align with our deeply rooted preferences. As neuroscience continues to emerge in the design landscape, designers can use scientific advancements to create better designs that consider their impact and potential benefits on human emotions and psychology.

______________________________

This article was produced by Human Bridges.

Cover Image, Top Left: artellliii72, Pixabay

______________________________

1 Smail, Irene E.; Rector, Amy L.; Robinson, Joshua R.; et al. (2025). “Pliocene Climatic Change and the Origins of Homo at Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia.” Annals of Human Biology. Vol. 52, No. 1.
2 Bobe, René, and Behrensmeyer, Anna K. (2004). “The Expansion of Grassland Ecosystems in Africa in Relation to Mammalian Evolution and the Origin of the Genus Homo.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Vol. 207, Issues 3-4, pp. 399-420.
3 Falk, Dean. (1990). “Brain Evolution in Homo: The ‘Radiator’ Theory.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 333-344.
4 Coss, Richard Gerrit, and Keller, Craig. (2022). “Transient Decreases in Blood Pressure and Heart Rate With Increased Subjective Level of Relaxation While Viewing Water Compared With Adjacent Ground.” Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 81, Issue 3.
5 Orians, Gordon H., and Heerwagen, Judith H. (1992). “Evolved Responses to Landscapes.” In Barkow, Jerome H.; Cosmides, Leda; and Tooby, John ( eds.), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, pp. 555-579. Oxford University Press.
6 Coss, Richard G. (1990). “All that Glistens: Water Connotations in Surface Finishes.” Ecological Psychology. Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 367-380.
7 Langlois, Judith H.; Roggman, Lori A.; and Rieser-Danner, Loretta (1990). “Infants’ Differential Social Responses to Attractive and Unattractive Faces.” Developmental Psychology. Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 153-159.
8 Meert, Katrien, Pandelaere, Mario, and Patrick, Vanessa M. (2014). “Taking a Shine to It: How the Preference for Glossy Stems From an Innate Need for Water.” Journal of Consumer Psychology. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 195-206.
9 White, Randall. (2007). “Systems of Personal Ornamentation in the Early Upper Palaeolithic: Methodological Challenges and New Observations.” Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans, pp. 287-302. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
10 d’Errico, Francesco., and Henshilwood, Christopher S. (2007). “Additional Evidence for Bone Technology in the Southern African Middle Stone Age.” Journal of Human Evolution. Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 142-163.
11 Geis, Lila; d’Errico, Francesco; Jordan, Fiona M.; et al. (2023). “Multiproxy Analysis of Upper Palaeolithic Lustrous Gravels Supports Their Anthropogenic Use.” PLOS One.
12 Zube, Ervin H.; Pitt, David G.; and Evans, Gary W. (1983). “A Lifespan Developmental Study of Landscape Assessment.” Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 115-128.
13 White, Mathew; Smith, Amanda; Humphryes, Kelly; et al. (2010). “Blue Space: The Importance of Water for Preference, Affect, and Restorativeness Ratings of Natural and Built Scenes.” Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 30, Issue 4, pp. 482-493.
14 Waite, Sue. (2007). “‘Memories Are Made of This’: Some Reflections on Outdoor Learning and Recall.” Education. Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 333-347.
15 Nichols, Wallace J. (2014). Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do. Little, Brown.
16 Zhu, Rui (Juliet), and Meyers-Levy, Joan. (2009). “The Influence of Self-View on Context Effects: How Display Fixtures Can Affect Product Evaluations.” Journal of Marketing Research. Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 37-45.

A new Denisovan mandible from Taiwan

The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI—A fossil mandible (Penghu 1: (10–70 ka or 130–190 ka) was discovered on the seabed of the Penghu Channel in Taiwan and reported as the first and oldest hominin fossil from Taiwan in 2015. Penghu 1 has distinct morphological characters and retains archaic features, but its taxonomic identity was unknown. Attempts were made to extract ancient DNA from this fossil, but these were unsuccessful. Now, an international research team from Japan, Taiwan, and Denmark revealed that Penghu 1 was derived from a male Denisovan by sequencing its bone and tooth proteins. The molecular identification of Penghu 1, a Denisovan, has significant implications for human evolutionary history in eastern Asia.

Modern human populations in eastern Asia, particularly in the southeast, have genomic elements derived from the Denisovans, and it has been suggested that the two interbred in the region. However, so far, the molecularly identified Denisovan fossils are very fragmentary and have been found only from two sites in northern Asia. This research has directly demonstrated that Denisovans were also distributed in southeastern Asia. This research also revealed that the jaws and teeth of Denisovans were much robust than those of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, who lived on Earth at the same time. These findings* have shed light on the mysterious appearance and distribution of Denisovans.

___________________________

Robust morphology can be seen. Chun-Hsiang Chang, Jay Chang

___________________________

Article Source: The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI news release.

Study reveals 8 million years of ‘Green Arabia’

Griffith University—A new study published in Nature reveals the modern arid desert between Africa and Saudi Arabia was once regularly lush and green with rivers and lakes over a period of 8 million years, allowing for the occupation and movements of both animals and hominins. 

The findings, led by an international team of researchers supported by the Saudi Heritage Commission, Ministry of Culture, shed new light on this hitherto unrecognized but important crossroad for biogeographic exchange between Africa and Eurasia. 

The Saharo-Arabian Desert is one of the largest biogeographic barriers on Earth, limiting the dispersal of early humans and animals between Africa and Eurasia.  

Recent research suggested the desert had been in place since at least 11 million years ago. 

But Professor Michael Petraglia, Director of Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution and co-author on the new study, said fossil evidence from the Late Miocene (marked by an increase in global temperatures) and Pleistocene (which contained multiple ice ages) suggested the episodic presence within the Saharo-Arabian Desert interior of water-dependent animals. 

Animals such as crocodiles, equids, hippopotamids, proboscideans, were likely sustained by rivers and lakes that were largely absent from today’s arid landscape.  

“These wetter conditions likely facilitated these mammalian dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, with Arabia acting as a key crossroads for continental-scale biogeographic exchanges,” Professor Petraglia said. 

Dr Monika Markowska of Northumbria University, UK, and Dr Hubert Vonhof of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany, conducted new work on cave speleothems (mineral deposits such as stalagtites and stalagmites) that led to the realisation that there were numerous humid phases in Arabia during the last 8 million years.  

Dr Markowska, who was lead author on the study, explained that little was known about Arabia’s palaeoclimate before this time, noting: “The findings highlighted that precipitation during humid intervals decreased and became more variable over time, as the monsoon’s influence weakened, coinciding with enhanced Northern Hemisphere polar ice cover during the Pleistocene.” 

Dr Faisal al-Jibrin, lead Saudi archaeologist of the Heritage Commission, said “Arabia has traditionally been overlooked in Africa-Eurasia dispersals, but studies like ours increasingly reveal it central place in mammalian and hominin migrations.”  

The study ‘Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years’ has been published in Nature

____________________________

Based on a climatic record from desert speleothems, researchers show recurrent humid intervals in the central Arabian interior over the past 8 million years. Paul Breeze

____________________________

Article Source: Griffith University news release.

Longest known seafaring venture 8,500 years ago brings hunter-gatherers to Malta before early farmers

Griffith University—Seafaring hunter-gatherers were accessing remote, small islands such as Malta thousands of years before the arrival of the first farmers, a new international study has found.

Published in Nature, the research team – led by Professor Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA) and the University of Malta – found hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100 km of open water to reach the Mediterranean island of Malta 8,500 years ago, a thousand years before the arrival of agricultural practices.

This report documented the oldest long-distance seafaring in the Mediterranean, before the invention of boats with sails – an astonishing feat for hunter-gatherers likely using simple dugout canoes.

At the cave site of Latnija in the northern Mellieħa region of Malta, the research team found the traces of humans in the form of their stone tools, hearths, and cooked food waste.

Small, remote islands were long thought to have been the last frontiers of pristine natural systems.

Humans were not thought to have been able to reach or inhabit these environments prior to the dawn of agriculture, and the technological shift that accompanied this transition.

“Even on the longest day of the year, these seafarers would have had over several hours of darkness in open water,” said Professor Nicholas Vella of the University of Malta, co-investigator of the study.

Dr Mathew Stewart, from Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, analyzed the animal remains from this site as part of the study.

“At the site we recovered a diverse array of animals, including hundreds of remains of deer, birds, tortoises, and foxes.” Dr Stewart said.

“Some of these wild animals were long thought to have gone extinct by this point in time,” added Professor Scerri.

“They were hunting and cooking red deer alongside tortoises and birds, including some that were extremely large and extinct today.”

In addition to this, the team of researchers found clear evidence for the exploitation of marine resources.

“We found remains of seal, various fish, including grouper, and thousands of edible marine gastropods, crabs and sea urchins, all indisputably cooked,” said Dr James Blinkhorn of the University of Liverpool and MPI-GEA, one of the study’s corresponding authors.

“The incorporation of a diverse range of terrestrial and, especially, marine fauna into the diet likely enabled these hunter-gatherers to sustain themselves on an island as small as Malta,” added Dr Stewart.

These discoveries also raised questions about the extinction of endemic animals on Malta and other small and remote Mediterranean islands, and whether distant Mesolithic communities may have been linked through seafaring.

“The results add a thousand years to Maltese prehistory and force a re-evaluation of the seafaring abilities of Europe’s last hunter-gatherers, as well as their connections and ecosystem impacts,” Professor Scerri said.

The findings ‘Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands’ have been published in Nature.

_________________________

Cave site of Latnija in the northern Mellieħa region of Malta. Huw Groucott

_________________________

In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history

Brown University, Providence, R.I.  — Just steps from the center of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old Maya city in the heart of modern-day Guatemala, a global team of researchers including scholars from Brown University have unearthed a buried altar that could unlock the secrets of a mysterious time of upheaval in the ancient world.

The altar, built around the late 300s A.D., is decorated with four painted panels of red, black and yellow depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked by shields or regalia. The face has almond-shaped eyes, a nose bar and a double earspool. It closely resembles other depictions of a deity dubbed the “Storm God” in central Mexico.

In a study* released on Tuesday, April 8, in Antiquity, the Brown researchers, along with co-authors from across the United States and Guatemala, argue that the painted altar wasn’t the work of a Maya artist. Instead, they believe it was created by a highly skilled artisan trained at Teotihuacan — the formidable ancient power whose seat was located 630 miles west, outside modern-day Mexico City.

“It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston, a professor of social science, anthropology, and history of art and architecture at Brown, who co-authored the paper. “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city. It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there.”

Even before discovering the altar, Houston and colleagues knew the Maya interacted with Teotihuacan for centuries before their relationship became closer.

Founded in about 850 B.C., Tikal existed for generations as a small city with little influence before ballooning into a dynasty around 100 A.D. Archaeologists have evidence that Tikal and the much more powerful Teotihuacan began interacting regularly about two centuries later. What seemed at first to be a casual trading relationship, Houston said, quickly became something more contentious.

“It’s almost as if Tikal poked the beast and got too much attention from Teotihuacan,” Houston said. “That’s when foreigners started moving into the area.”

An ancient coup d’etat

Houston said that over several decades, scholars have collected mounting evidence of a less-than-friendly relationship. The research started in the 1960s, when archaeologists found a cut and mutilated stone with well-preserved text describing the conflict in broad terms. 

Thanks to the stone’s text, they learned that “around A.D. 378, Teotihuacan was essentially decapitating a kingdom,” Houston said. “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling, a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.”

Decades later, using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, the Brown scholars and several colleagues discovered a scaled-down replica of the Teotihuacan citadel just outside the center of Tikal, buried under what archaeologists believed were natural hills. The discovery suggested that in the years leading up to its overthrow, Teotihuacan’s presence in the Maya city probably involved an element of occupation or surveillance.

Co-author Andrew Scherer, a professor of anthropology and of archaeology and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, said the altar was built right around the time of the coup. He said the altar’s meticulously painted exterior isn’t the only evidence of the capital’s heavy-handed presence: Inside the altar, the archaeologists found a child buried in a seated position, a rare practice at Tikal but common at Teotihuacan. They also found an adult interred with a dart point made of green obsidian; Scherer said the material and design of the dart point are distinct to Teotihuacan.

The fact that the altar and the area around it was later buried, Scherer said, cements the research team’s theory that Teotihuacan’s presence left Tikal forever changed and even scarred.

“The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” Scherer said. “But here, they buried the altar and surrounding buildings and just left them, even though this would have been prime real estate centuries later. They treated it almost like a memorial or a radioactive zone. It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.”

Power begets power

“Complicated” is an apt way to describe Tikal’s collective memory of the Teotihuacan coup, Houston said. The event may have shaken Tikal to its core, but it ultimately made the kingdom more powerful: Over the next few centuries, Tikal rose to yet greater heights, becoming a nearly unmatched dynasty before eventually declining around 900 A.D., along with the rest of the Maya world.

“There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time, when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said. “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully. Even when they were in decline, they were still thinking about local politics in context of that contact with central Mexico.”

As they uncover more details about the contentious story of Teotihuacan and Tikal, Houston and Scherer said they’re both struck by how familiar it sounds: An all-powerful empire spots paradise and decides to plunder its riches.

“Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston said. “Our findings show evidence that that’s a tale as old as time. These powers of central Mexico reached into the Maya world because they saw it as a place of extraordinary wealth, of special feathers from tropical birds, jade and chocolate. As far as Teotihuacan was concerned, it was the land of milk and honey.” 

Along with Houston and Scherer, authors of the study include Edwin Román Ramírez, Lorena Paiz Aragón, Alejandrina Corado Ochoa, Cristina García Leal and Rony E. Piedrasanta Castellanos of the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal; Angelyn Bass of the University of New Mexico; Thomas G. Garrison and David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin; and Heather Hurst of Skidmore College. Funding for the research came in part from the PACUNAM Lidar Initiative and the Hitz Foundation.

__________________________

Article Source: Brown University news release.

The “mega-village” of Valencina de la Concepción, a large sustainable and egalitarian community at the height of the Copper Age

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona—The Chalcolithic site of Valencina de la Concepción in Seville was permanently occupied for a thousand years, between 3300 and 2150 BCE, by a community of several thousand inhabitants who organized themselves in an egalitarian manner and reached a high level of economic sustainability based on cooperation and diversification.

This is the conclusion of a research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) that has analysed 635 macrolithic tools recovered from the northern part of the site. The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, rethinks previous interpretations, which considered Valencina a purely ritual or temporary meeting place, and reinforces its character as a complex and long-lasting settlement.

Researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid, the University of Würzburg, Germany, and the German Archaeological Institute Madrid also participated in the study.

Valencina de la Concepción, with a total surface area of 450 hectares, is the most extensive site in Europe from the third millennium BCE. Despite a growing amount of information on the megalithic tombs of the necropolis and its concentric graves, little is known about another area, the settlement, which occupies ca. 200 hectares, and about the economic practices and social relations of the communities that frequented it. This study allowed researchers to understand the economic activities that were carried out throughout the occupation of the settlement and to re-evaluate its socio-economic organization.

The artifacts analyzed come from habitation and production units, such as huts, workshops and pits arranged in a circular formation, as well as from the material found inside the ditches. The analysis reflects an economy based on domestic and subsistence activities, with a great productive diversity, which included the processing of grains, plant fibers, animals, leather, metals, stone and other organic and inorganic materials.

The activities were maintained in a stable manner throughout the entire occupation of the Copper Age, between 5,300 and 5,150 years ago. “This indicates a permanent occupation of the settlement. The only observable changes between the three major phases of occupation could be due to the density of occupation of the area,” says Marina Eguíluz, predoctoral researcher at the Department of Prehistory of the UAB and first author of the study.

The great variety of work identified and the fact that no accumulation of surpluses has been detected suggests an organisational model based on a cooperative and diversified economy. This productive model, in combination with a basically egalitarian organisation, would have allowed the population, probably made up of several thousand inhabitants, to be economically sustainable over the course of a millennium.

“The observed continuity highlights the sustainability of the socioeconomic model present during the Copper Age, based on cooperativism and the lack of accumulation and centralization, and differentiated from later models of productive intensification. This reinforces the proposal to define the most developed communities of the Copper Age in the south of the Iberian Peninsula as cooperative societies of abundance, a form of social organization that deeply questions the traditional evolutionary models, based on hierarchical and power relations between bands, tribes, prefectures or states”, emphasizes Roberto Risch, researcher of Prehistory at the UAB and coordinator of the study.

Artefacts until now associated with ritualism

Until now, the interpretation of Valencina de la Concepción has focused mainly on its necropolis and on specific parts of the settlement. Above all, the objects analyzed were related to funerary practices, products of distant origin and the specialised craft production of pottery, metallurgy and copper. Stone materials were previously interpreted as evidence of ritualism due to their reduced and fragmented nature, and thus have received little attention as tools for subsistence and daily activities.

The artifacts analysed in this study were recovered from excavations carried out at Cerro de la Cabeza and the Pabellón Cubierto, included in the Valencina Nord project developed by the German Archaeological Institute of Madrid, the University of Würzburg and the Autonomous University of Madrid, with the collaboration of the UAB.

The study also shows that the tools were intensively used and the materials were reused. The materials were obtained from areas located within a maximum radius of 30 kilometers, which points to a local and regional management of lithic resources.

The methodology included the technological and functional analysis of the artefacts, as well as the macroscopic identification of raw materials, in order to understand aspects such as origin, production, use and discard, as well as radiocarbon dating and stratigraphic observations. In some of the items, samples of organic origin were collected, which have allowed a better understanding of their function.

The study carried out by UAB researchers opens the door to new comparative studies with other Chalcolithic sites focused on macrolithic artifacts.

________________________________

Article Source: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona news release.

First ancient genomes from the Green Sahara deciphered

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology—A study* provides critical new insights into the African Humid Period, a time between 14,500 and 5,000 years ago when the Sahara desert was a green savanna, rich in water bodies that facilitated human habitation and the spread of pastoralism. Later aridification turned this region into the world’s largest desert. Due to the extreme aridity of the region today, DNA preservation is poor, making this pioneering ancient DNA study all the more significant.

Genomic analyses reveal that the ancestry of the Takarkori rock shelter individuals primarily derives from a North African lineage that diverged from sub-Saharan African populations at about the same time as the modern human lineages that spread outside of Africa around 50,000 years ago. The newly described lineage remained isolated, revealing deep genetic continuity in North Africa during the late Ice Age. While this lineage no longer exists in unadmixed form, this ancestry is still a central genetic component of present-day North African people, highlighting their unique heritage.

North Africa remained genetically isolated

Furthermore, these individuals share close genetic ties with 15,000-year-old foragers that lived during the Ice Age in Taforalt Cave, Morocco, associated with the Iberomaurusian lithic industry that predates the African Humid Period. Notably, both groups are equally distant from sub-Saharan African lineages, indicating that despite the Sahara’s greening, gene flow between sub-Saharan and North African populations remained limited during the African Humid Period, contrary to previous suggestions.

The study also sheds light on Neandertal ancestry, showing that the Takarkori individuals have ten-fold less Neandertal DNA than people outside Africa, but more than contemporary sub-Saharan Africans. “Our findings suggest that while early North African populations were largely isolated, they received traces of Neandertal DNA due to gene flow from outside Africa,” said senior author Johannes Krause, director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

The spread of pastoralism in the Green Sahara

“Our research challenges previous assumptions about North African population history and highlights the existence of a deeply rooted and long-isolated genetic lineage,” said first author Nada Salem from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “This discovery reveals how pastoralism spread across the Green Sahara, likely through cultural exchange rather than large-scale migration.”

“The study highlights the importance of ancient DNA for reconstructing human history in regions like Central Northern Africa, providing independent support to archaeological hypotheses,” said senior author David Caramelli from the University of Florence. “By shedding light on the Sahara’s deep past, we aim to increase our knowledge of human migrations, adaptations, and cultural evolution in this key region,” added senior author Savino di Lernia from Sapienza University in Rome.

____________________________

View of the Takarkori rock shelter in Southern Libya. © Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome

____________________________

7,000-year-old natural mummy found at the Takarkori rock shelter (Individual H1) in Southern Libya. © Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome

____________________________

Article Source: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology news release.

Children participated in cave paintings because they were perceived as mediators between the physical and spiritual worlds

Tel-Aviv University—A team of Tel Aviv University researchers from the field of prehistoric archaeology has proposed an innovative hypothesis regarding an intriguing question: Why did ancient humans bring their young children to cave painting sites, deep underground — through dark, meandering, hazardous passages? The researchers explain: “Next to many cave paintings, there is clear evidence of the presence of children as young as two years old. So far, most hypotheses have focused on the educational aspect — learning the community’s traditions and customs. However, we believe that children also played a unique cultural role in these caves: Young children were credited with special qualities in the spiritual world, enabling them to communicate with entities from the beyond – which were believed to be accessible from the depths of the cave.”

The study was conducted by Dr. Ella Assaf, Dr. Yafit Kedar, and Prof. Ran Barkai from the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. The paper was published in the journal Arts from MDPI.

Dr. Assaf explains: “Cave art created by early humans is a fascinating phenomenon that intrigues many researchers. To date, around 400 caves containing cave art have been discovered, mainly in France and Spain, with the artwork dated between 40,000 and 12,000 years ago. There is solid evidence of children’s participation in the art work — handprints and finger paintings made by children aged two to twelve. In addition, footprints and handprints of children have been found in some caves, alongside those of adults. This naturally raises the question: Why were the children there? Why were very young children taken on exhausting and hazardous journeys deep into the dark, meandering caves with low oxygen levels — crawling through crevices, descending shafts, and climbing rocks to reach their destination?

Dr. Kedar elaborates: “Despite extensive research on cave art, few studies have focused on the presence of children. The prevailing hypothesis is that their participation served an educational purpose — passing down knowledge, traditions, and customs to the next generation. In our study, we argue that children’s involvement had an additional meaning: In fact, they played an important, unique role of their own — direct communication with entities residing in the depths of the earth and otherworldly realms. This study follows our previous works, in which we presented cave art works as expressions of cosmological approaches, with emphasis on relationships between humans and various entities.”

Dr. Assaf adds: “Based on extensive studies about children in indigenous societies, along with new insights into rituals performed in caves with cave paintings, a new understanding is emerging regarding the role of children in the creation of cave art. By integrating data from these research fields, we were able, for the first time, to propose a novel and original explanation for the inclusion of children in creating cave paintings:  The world of childhood differs from that of adults, and children possess a range of unique mental and cognitive traits. For this reason, indigenous cultures worldwide, throughout history and prehistory, have viewed children as ‘active agents’ — mediators between this world and the entities inhabiting the natural world, the underworld, and the cosmos as a whole. In this way, children made a vital contribution to their communities – hunter-gatherers who lived in nature and sought to maintain continuous, respectful relationships with various entities: animals and plants that served as food sources, stones used for toolmaking, ancestral spirits, and more.”

Prof. Barkai: “Many of these societies regarded caves as gateways to the underworld – where, through shamanic rituals, they could communicate with cosmic entities and inhabitants of the underworld, to resolve existential problems. In this context, young children were perceived as liminal beings — belonging to both the realm they had left just recently (before birth) and the world they currently inhabit. Thus, small children were considered particularly suited to bridging the gap between the worlds and delivering messages to non-human entities. In this paper, we connect these insights and propose that children joined adults on journeys into the depths of caves and participated in painting and rituals as part of their role in the community—as ideal mediators with entities from the beyond.”

__________________________

Finger paintings made by children in Rouffignac Cave, 14,000 to 20,000 years ago. Dr. Van Gelder

__________________________

Finger paintings made by children in Rouffignac Cave, 14,000 to 20,000 years ago. Dr. Van Gelder

__________________________

Children’s footprints from Basura Cave, 14,000 years ago. Prof. Marco Romano – Romano et al. 2019

__________________________

article link:

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/14/2/27

__________________________

Advertisement

EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON!
Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!