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Archaeological Finds of Ancient Arabia to be Shown

Posted on August 22, 2014 by No Author -

Beginning October 11, 2014 and showing through June 7, 2015, The Smithsonian Institution will be exhibiting a selection of artifacts, film and photography from one of the largest archaeological expeditions to two ancient sites in present-day Yemen.

From 1949 to 1951, paleontologist and geologist Wendell Phillips led an expedition of scholars, scientists and technicians to what was then remote South Arabia on a quest to uncover two legendary cities—Timna, the capital of the Qataban kingdom, and Ma’rib, thought by some scholars to be the home of the Queen of Sheba.

Timna was an important trading hub along the Incense Route, which supplied Arabian and Indian incense via camel caravan to ports on the Mediterranean Sea, most notably Gaza and Petra. Ma’rib was the capital of the Sabaean kingdom, otherwise thought by some scholars to be ancient Sheba, known from the biblical accounts. Here, the Sabaean kings made their capital and built irrigation works such as the Ma’rib dams, the remains of which can still be seen.They also built other structures and temples, and traded in frankincense and myrrh. As a seafaring people, the Sabaeans also had populations in Northeast Africa, present-day Somalia, Eritrea and possibly Ethiopia, a source of frankincense and myrrh.

Both Arabian centers flourished about 2,500 years ago, due in no small measure from the wealth of the insense trade.

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Wendell Phillips’ team begins excavation at a peristyle hall in Ma’rib, in present-day Yemen. Courtesy American Foundation for the Study of Man. Courtesy

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One of a pair of large bronze high reliefs each in the form of a striding lioness surmounted by a figure of Eros (The Bronze Lions of Timna) Yemen; 1st century BCE–mid-1st century CE; Bronze; Gift of The American Foundation for the Study of Man, Wendell and Merilyn Phillips Collection. Courtesy Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

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The exhibition highlights Phillips’s key finds and showcases his adventures in what was, and continues to be, an archaeological frontier.

The exhibition will be shown at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition. We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

Archaeologists Find Humans Were Eating Snails 30,000 Years Ago

Posted on August 20, 2014 by No Author -

Paleolithic humans of present-day Spain may have eaten snails as much as 30,000 years ago, or 10,000 years earlier than inhabitants of Mediterranean regions, according to research by Javier Fernández-López de Pablo from Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social and colleagues.

The researchers discovered land snail shell remains dated to about 30,000 years ago at the site of Cova de la Barriada, Spain. Groupings of complete shells from a large land snail species were found in three areas of the site, corresponding to different time points. They studied these remains by investigating patterns indicating likley land snail selection, consumption, and accumulation at the site, and then analyzed the shells’ decay, fossilization process, composition, and age at death by measuring the shell sizes.

The snails appeared to be associated with prehistoric human-constructed structures that may have been used to cook the snails, along with stone tools, and other animal remains that were likely roasted in ambers of pine and juniper at 375 C. The authors posit that these results point to previously undiscovered patterns of invertebrate use and may highlight a broadening of the human diet in the Upper Paleolithic in the Mediterranean basin. In neighboring Mediterranean areas, eating land snails didn’t appear until about 10,000 years later, which may make these newly found snail shells the oldest known evidence that ancient human populations used them as a food resource in Europe about 30,000 years ago.

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This image depicts Upper Palaeolithic combustion structure containing human collected and cooked land snails and carbonaceous sediments (A) and complete land snails recovered into the combustion structure (B). Credit: Fernández-López de Pablo et al.

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The study is published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104898*

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*Fernández-López de Pablo J, Badal E, Ferrer Garcıa C, Martínez-Ortí A, Sanchis Serra A (2014) Land Snails as a Diet Diversification Proxy during the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe. PLoS ONE 9(8): e104898. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104898

Sources: Adapted and edited from a PLOS ONE press release.

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Study Sheds Light on Human Evolution

Posted on August 17, 2014 by No Author -

In an environment where others struggle to survive, Tibetans thrive in the thin air on the Tibetan Plateau, with an average elevation of 14,800 feet. A study led by University of Utah scientists is the first to find a genetic cause for the adaptation – a single DNA base pair change that dates back 8,000 years – and demonstrate how it contributes to the Tibetans’ ability to live in low oxygen conditions. The study appears online in the journal Nature Genetics on Aug. 17, 2014.

“These findings help us understand the unique aspects of Tibetan adaptation to high altitudes, and to better understand human evolution,” said Josef Prchal, M.D., senior author and University of Utah professor of internal medicine.

The story behind the discovery is equally about cultural diplomacy as it is scientific advancement. Prchal traveled several times to Asia to meet with Chinese officials, and representatives of exiled Tibetans in India, to obtain permissions to recruit subjects for the study. But he quickly learned that without the trust of Tibetans, his efforts were futile. Wary of foreigners, they refused to donate blood for his research.

After returning to the U.S., Prchal couldn’t believe his luck upon discovering that a native Tibetan, Tsewang Tashi, M.D., had just joined the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah as a clinical fellow. When Prchal asked for his help, Tashi quickly agreed. “I realized the implications of his work not only for science as a whole but also for understanding what it means to be Tibetan,” said Tashi. In another stroke of luck, Prchal received a long-awaited letter of support from the Dalai Lama. The two factors were instrumental in engaging the Tibetans’ trust: more than 90, both from the U.S. and abroad, volunteered for the study.

First author Felipe Lorenzo, Ph.D., spent years combing through the Tibetans’ DNA, and unlocking secrets from a “GC-rich” region that is notoriously difficult to penetrate. His hard work was worth it, for the Tibetans’ DNA had a fascinating tale to tell. About 8,000 years ago, the gene EGLN1 changed by a single DNA base pair. Today, a relatively short time later on the scale of human history, 88% of Tibetans have the genetic variation, and it is virtually absent from closely related lowland Asians. The findings indicate the genetic variation endows its carriers with an advantage.

Prchal collaborated with experts throughout the world to determine what that advantage is. In those without the adaptation, low oxygen causes their blood to become thick with oxygen-carrying red blood cells – an attempt to feed starved tissues – which can cause long-term complications such as heart failure. The researchers found that the newly identified genetic variation protects Tibetans by decreasing the over-response to low oxygen.

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Josef Prchal, M.D., (at computer) enrolls Tibetans into the study. Credit: Tsewang Tashi, M.D.

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The discoveries are but one chapter in a much larger story. The genetic adaptation likely causes other changes to the body that have yet to be understood. Plus, it is one of many as of yet unidentified genetic changes that collectively support life at high altitudes.

Prchal says the implications of the research extend beyond human evolution. Because oxygen plays a central role in human physiology and disease, a deep understanding of how high altitude adaptations work may lead to novel treatments for various diseases, including cancer. “There is much more that needs to be done, and this is just the beginning,” he said.

At the beginning of the project, while in Asia, Prchal was amazed at how Tashi was able to establish a common ground with Tibetans. He helped them realize they had something unique to contribute. “When I tell my fellow Tibetans, ‘Unlike other people, Tibetans can adapt better to living at high altitude,’ they usually respond by a little initial surprise quickly followed by agreement,” Tashi explained.

“Its as if I made them realize something new, which only then became obvious.”

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“A genetic mechanism for Tibetan high-altitude adaptation” is published online on Aug. 17, 2014, in Nature Genetics. Authors: Felipe R. Lorenzo, Chad Huff, Mikko Myllymäki, Benjamin Olenchock, Sabina Swierczek, Tsewang Tashi, Victor Gordeuk ,Tana Wuran, Ge Ri-Li, Donald McClain, Tahsin M. Khan, Parvaiz A. Koul, Prasenjit Guchhait, Mohamed E. Salama, Jinchuan Xing, Gregg L. Semenza, Ella Liberzon, Andrew Wilson, Tatum S. Simonson, Lynn B. Jorde, William G. Kaelin Jr., Peppi Koivunen, and Josef T. Prchal

Article Source: Press release of the University of Utah Health Sciences

Cover Image: Tibetan locals living at 4,300m. Credit: Tsewang Tashi, M.D.

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Scientists Confirm Richard III Led a Royal Lifestyle

Posted on August 16, 2014 by No Author -

It is confirmed: King Richard III, whose remains were identified and exhumed in September, 2012 near Leicester, England, led a royal lifestyle, particularly during his last few years as King. A recent bone chemistry study completed by a joint scientific team from the British Geological Survey and the University of Leicester backs it up with evidence. This might seem to be a rather unnecessary confirmation for a common assumption—kings lived like, well, kings. But the same study has also revealed evidence of previously unknown changes in diet and location during his youth.

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The remains of King Richard III found in Trench 1 during the Leicester excavations. Photo Credit: University of Leicester

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Led by Angela Lamb, Isotope Geochemist with the British Geological Survey, the research team took bone and tooth enamel measurements of strontium, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and lead from the teeth, a femur and a rib as they developed and rebuilt at different stages related to geographical location, pollution and diet through time during the king’s life—somewhat analagous to dendrochronologists examining the tree rings in samples of wood to determine the changes in the environment and growth patterns of a tree in other archaeological studies.

They found that the teeth showed that he had moved from Fotheringay castle in eastern England by the time he was seven years old. Findings also suggested that during this time he was in an area of higher rainfall, older rocks and with a changed diet relative to his place of birth in Northamptonshire. Results from examining the femur showed that he moved back to eastern England as an adolescent or young adult, with a diet that was consistent with that typical of the high aristocracy. Data from the rib indicated the greatest change in diet, while he was King, showing an increase in consumption of freshwater fish and birds, such as swam, crane, egret and heron, popular items on the menu of royal banquets during his lifetime. Moreover, the bone chemistry analysis suggests he was drinking increased amounts of wine during his reign as King, supporting the notion that food and drink correlated with social status in Medieval England.

“The chemistry of Richard III’s teeth and bones reveal changes in his geographical movements, diet and social status throughout his life,” said Lamb.

Richard Buckley, who was the lead archaeologist on the excavations conducted by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services, said, “This cutting edge research has provided a unique opportunity to shed new light on the diet and environment of a major historical figure –Richard III. It is very rare indeed in archaeology to be able to identify a named individual with precise dates and a documented life. This has enabled the stable-isotope analysis to show how his environment changed at different times in his life and, perhaps most significantly, identified marked changes in his diet when he became king in 1483.”

The excavation of the Richard III remains and surrounding area was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council and in association with the Richard III Society. The originator of the Search project was Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society.

The study is published in Elsevier’s Journal of Archaeological Science*. This forensic study will also be featured in a documentary, Richard III: The New Evidence, airing on Channel 4 on Sunday 17th August at 9pm.

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Dr. Angela Lamb and professor Jane Evans in the isotope laboratory. Courtesy Elsevier

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“Multi-isotope analysis demonstrates significant lifestyle changes in King Richard III” by Angela L. Lamb, Jane E. Evans, Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.06.021); Journal of Archaeological Science, published by Elsevier.

Source of this article: Adapted and edited from a news release by Elsevier.

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Archaeologists of Time Team America Return for Second Season

Posted on August 14, 2014 by No Author -

TIME TEAM AMERICA, the PBS series that combines archaeological discovery with good storytelling, is back for a second season. Each of the four new episodes explores a different region and time in U.S. history through the eyes, ears and expertise of a team of adventurous archaeologists. The first two episodes of TIME TEAM AMERICA debut Tuesday, August 19, 2014, followed by the second two on August 26, 9 p.m. EST and PST, and 8 p.m. Central, on PBS.

In each one-hour episode, scientists Joe Watkins, Allan Maca, Meg Watters, Jeff Brown and Chelsea Rose join forces with host Justine Shapiro to uncover historical secrets buried beneath the soil. The series combines technologically advanced tools and old-fashioned elbow grease to take viewers on a journey into the earth and back in time.

“We’re thrilled to be back for a second season of this terrific series,” says co-executive producer David Davis. “There’s nothing else quite like it on TV. Viewers will feel they are right in the trenches with working archeologists as they uncover the artifacts of our past.”

Here’s what’s in store for the team in season two:

• Tucked between upscale homes in suburban Maryland just outside Washington, DC, are the remains of an 1830’s plantation—once home to Josiah Henson, the enslaved person who inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. What remains here of his life and legacy?

• In western Oklahoma, the bones of massive 10,000-year-old bison mingle with the remnants of early human-made weapons. What strategies did hunters use against these mammoth beasts before the advent of bows and arrows? What can these bison bones teach us about our ancient past?

• Camp Lawton, near Millen, Georgia, housed 10,000 Union prisoners at the end of the Civil War. The remains of the camp have long been lost to history. Can TIME TEAM AMERICA find the original site of the camp? What artifacts are buried beneath the ground and what do they tell us of the hellish experiences of the prisoners once held captive here?

• The site of what is believed to have been a 1,200-year-old village is located near Mesa Verde, Colorado, where ancient people built one of the first permanent settlements in North America. What did this settlement look like and how did life here shape human history?

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The team uncovers the site of a pueblo village in Colorado. Courtesy Ann McGary/Oregon Public Broadcasting

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The team hard at work excavating 10,000-year-old bison bones. Courtesy Shervin Hess/Oregon Public Broadcasting

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The hosts of TIME TEAM AMERICA are:

• Justine Shapiro, documentary filmmaker and television host;

• Dr. Joe Watkins, lead archaeologist;

• Dr. Meg Watters, remote sensing and visualization specialist;

• Dr. Allan Maca, archaeologist;

• Chelsea Rose, archaeologist; and

• Jeff Brown, excavator.

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View past episodes of TIME TEAM AMERICA online at pbs.org/time-team.

TIME TEAM AMERICA is a co-production of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Videotext Communications, Ltd. and is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The co-executive producer for OPB is David Davis and the co-executive producer for Videotext is Tim Taylor.

Source: Adapted and editied from a press release of PBS and Oregon Public Broadcasting.

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Egyptian mummification started much earlier than previously thought, say researchers

Posted on August 13, 2014 by No Author -

Researchers from the Universities of York, Macquarie and Oxford have discovered new evidence to suggest that the origins of mummification started in ancient Egypt 1,500 years earlier than previously thought.

Traditional theories on ancient Egyptian mummification suggest that in prehistory — the Late Neolithic and Predynastic periods between c. 4500 and 3100 B.C. — bodies were desiccated naturally through the action of the hot, dry desert sand. Scientific evidence for the early use of resins in artificial mummification has, until now, been limited to isolated occurrences during the late Old Kingdom (c. 2200 BC). Their use became more apparent during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1600 BC).

But an 11-year study by the York, Macquarie and Oxford team identified the presence of complex embalming agents in linen wrappings from bodies in securely provenanced tombs in one of the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries at Mostagedda, in the region of Upper Egypt.

“For over a decade I have been intrigued by early and cryptic reports of the methods of wrapping bodies at the Neolithic cemeteries at Badari and Mostagedda,” said Dr Jana Jones of Macquarie University, Sydney. “In 2002, I examined samples of funerary textiles from these sites that had been sent to various museums in the United Kingdom through the 1930s from Egypt. Microscopic analysis with my colleague Mr Ron Oldfield revealed resins were likely to have been used, but I wasn’t able to confirm my theories, or their full significance, without tapping into my York colleague’s unique knowledge of ancient organic compounds.”

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Graves at Mostagedda. Late Neolithic/Tasian. Mostagedda and the Tasian Culture (London 1937) Courtesy G. Brunton

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Dr Jones initiated the research and led the study jointly with Dr Stephen Buckley, a Research Fellow at the University of York.

“Such controversial inferences challenge traditional beliefs on the beginnings of mummification,” said Dr Jones. “They could only be proven conclusively through biochemical analysis, which Dr Buckley agreed to undertake after a number of aborted attempts by others. His knowledge includes many organic compounds present in an archaeological context, yet which are often not in the literature or mass spectra libraries.”

Dr Buckley, who is also a corresponding author of the published study on the research, used a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and sequential thermal desorption/pyrolysis to identify a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum/sugar, a natural petroleum source, and a plant oil/animal fat in the funerary wrappings.

Predating the earliest scientific evidence by more than a millennium, these embalming agents constitute complex, processed recipes of the same natural products, in similar proportions, as those employed at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification some 3,000 years later.

Dr Buckley, who designed the experimental research and conducted the chemical analyses, said: “The antibacterial properties of some of these ingredients and the localised soft-tissue preservation that they would have afforded lead us to conclude that these represent the very beginnings of experimentation that would evolve into the mummification practice of the Pharaonic period.”

Dr Buckley added: “Having previously led research on embalming agents employed in mummification during Egypt’s Pharaonic period it was notable that the relative abundances of the constituents are typical of those used in mummification throughout much of ancient Egypt’s 3000 year Pharaonic history. Moreover, these resinous recipes applied to the prehistoric linen wrapped bodies contained antibacterial agents, used in the same proportions employed by the Egyptian embalmers when their skill was at its peak, some 2500-3000 years later.”

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From Mostagedda, Late Neolithic. Flax yarn from wrappings, heavily impregnated with resin. Courtesy Ron Oldfield and Jana Jones

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From Mostagedda, Tomb No. 1215, Late Neolithic. Funerary textile with ‘resin’, fragments of bone and reed matting. Courtesy Ron Oldfield and Jana Jones

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From Mostagedda, Early Predynastic. Two layers of textile, the inner impregnated with embalming substances. Courtesy Ron Oldfield and Jana Jones

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From Mostagedda, Early Predynastic. Multiple layers of wrappings with ‘resins’. Courtesy Ron Oldfield and Jana Jones

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Dr Thomas Higham, who was responsible for dating the burials at the University of Oxford, said: “This work demonstrates the huge potential of material in museum collections to allow researchers to unearth new information about the archaeological past. Using modern scientific tools our work has helped to illuminate a key aspect of the early history of ancient Egypt.”

“Our ground-breaking results show just what can be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration between the sciences and the humanities,” said Dr Jones.

The study was published as ‘Evidence for prehistoric origins of Egyptian mummification in Late Neolithic burials’ in the journal PLOS ONE at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103608.

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Source: Adaptd and edited from a news release of the University of York.

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Archaeologists Reveal the Stories of Two 18th Century American Ships

Posted on August 11, 2014 by No Author -

The remains of two 18th century American ships, one uncovered 22 feet below street level in a pit located in what is now the underground security and parking complex of the new World Trade Center construction in New York City, and the other now housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., have revealed some details of late 18th century colonial and post-colonial U.S. American maritime history.

The first features timber remains discovered 4 years ago while workers were excavating a pit below the area where the World Trade Center once stood. It was subsequently determined to be a late 18th century Hudson River sloop after scientists, applying techniques of dendrochronology at the Columbia University tree-ring lab at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, dated its original construction from old-growth white oak trees of eastern Pennsylvania to shortly after 1773 in a Philadelphia port. The findings were recently published in a journal issue of the Tree-Ring Society.

Sloops in the late 18th century were generally designed for river travel and used to transport goods and people. This particular boat was suggested by archaeologists and historians to have been in service in the trade routes around New York, Connecticut and the Chesapeake region. But this ship showed evidence of having been sailed at least one time to the Caribbean area, as the timber showed signs of past shipworm infestation, a condition that develops in warm salt water environments. Few late 18th century sloops have been recovered, so not much is known about them, but historians and archaeologists say there were many of them in use, based on written and visual documentation.

Along with the ship timbers, archaeologists recovered cannonballs, ceramics, pipe fragments, buckles, a spoon, a coin, and a button of the British 52nd Regiment. Further analysis will tell scientists more about the sloop and, by extension, more about the late 18th century sloops of the eastern coastal regions of U.S. colonial and post-colonial times.

For Public View: The Oldest Surviving American Fighting Vessel

The other ship, a Revolutionary War period gunboat now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) on the downtown Mall of Washington, D.C., was recovered in remarkably good condition from the bottom of Lake Champlain in 1935 by Lorenzo F. Haggulund, a civil engineer. Identified as the gunboat USS Philadelphia, it was exhibited for a number of years at various locations for tourists, after which it was transferred to the NMAH in 1964, along with the 24-pound ball thought to have been responsible for sinking the gunboat during a key battle with the British in 1776.

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Three views (above and below) of the gunboat Philadelphia as exhibited at the National Museum of American History. (Image below, Matthew G. Bisanz, Wikimedia Commons; last image Kevin Burkett, Wikimedia Commons)

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The gunboat remains are significant in that they represent the oldest surviving American fighting vessel, built in 1776, around the same time or after the construction of the aforementioned sloop recently recovered in New York City. Among the objects recovered from its post-battle resting place were cannons, the hull, and hundreds of other artifacts including shot, cooking utensils, tools, buttons, buckles and human bones.

The gunboat sank in Lake Champlain during the battle of Valcour Island. It was part of a small, newly built fleet that met a British force on October 11, 1776. The battle was hard-fought, but the superior firepower of the British squadron defeated the American flotilla, and sent the Philadelphia to the bottom of the Lake at the end of the first day of a 3-day battle. Though the battle was considered a defeat for the Americans, it was successful in delaying the British campaign and eventually led to the American victory at Saratoga.

The gunboat USS Philadelphia can be seen by visitors in a recently renovated third floor gallery at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It is complete with the reconstructed original vessel, video footage, painted scrims and display cases exhibiting numerous artifacts recovered from the recovery site.

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6,500-Year-Old Skeleton Newly “Discovered” in the Penn Museum

Posted on August 5, 2014 by No Author -

Philadelphia, PA Summer 2014— Sometimes the best archaeological discoveries aren’t made in the field. Scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia have re-discovered an important find in their own storage rooms, a complete human skeleton about 6,500 years old. The mystery skeleton had been stored in a coffin-like box for 85 years, all trace of its identifying documentation gone. This summer, a project to digitize old records from a world-famous excavation brought that documentation, and the history of the skeleton, back to light.

Unearthed in 1929–30 by Sir Leonard Woolley’s joint Penn Museum/British Museum excavation team at the site of Ur in what is now southern Iraq, the skeleton is about 2,000 years older than the materials and remains found in the famous Mesopotamian “royal tombs,” the focus of a Penn Museum signature exhibition, Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery. According to Dr. Janet Monge, Curator-in-Charge, Physical Anthropology Section of the Penn Museum, a visual examination of the skeleton indicates it is that of a once well-muscled male, about age 50 or older. Buried fully extended with arms at his sides and hands over his abdomen, he would have stood 5’ 8” to 5’ 10” tall.

Skeletons from this time in the ancient Near East, known as the Ubaid period (roughly 5500–4000 BCE) are extremely rare; complete skeletons from this period are even rarer. Woolley’s team excavated 48 graves in an early, Ubaid-era flood plain, nearly 50 feet below the surface of the site; of those, Woolley determined that only one skeleton was in condition to recover: the skeleton that has now been identified in the Penn Museum’s collection. He coated the bones and surrounding soil in wax and shipped the entire skeleton to London, then on to Philadelphia.

Today’s scientific techniques, unavailable in Woolley’s time, may provide new information about diet, ancestral origins, trauma, stress, and diseases of this poorly understood population.

A Mystery Solved 

Dr. Monge had long known about the particular skeleton in the basement—one of about 2,000 complete human skeletons in the Museum collection, which houses, altogether, more than 150,000 bone specimens from throughout human history. For as long as she had been a Keeper or Curator, it had been there—a curious mystery, in an old wooden box with no catalog card, no identifying number, nothing to explain its former whereabouts.

In 2012, a new project began to digitize records from the 1922–1934 excavations at Ur. The project, Ur of the Chaldees: A Virtual Vision of Woolley’s Excavations, made possible with lead funding from the Leon Levy Foundation, is, like the original excavations, jointly conducted by the Penn Museum and the British Museum. At the Penn Museum, Dr. William Hafford, Ur Digitization Project Manager and his team, under the supervision of Dr. Richard Zettler, Associate Curator-in-Charge of the Near East Section, and Dr. Steve Tinney, Associate Curator-in-Charge of the Babylonian Section, have examined and digitized thousands of records stored in the Penn Museum Archives and documenting the excavation.

One set of records particularly caught Dr. Hafford’s eye: a set of division lists telling which objects went to which museum. Half of all artifacts stayed in the new nation of Iraq, but the other half was split between London and Philadelphia. The record for the eighth season, 1929–30, surprised him. It said that the Penn Museum would receive, among other items, one tray of “mud of the flood” and two “skeletons.” Further research into the Museum’s object record database indicated that one of those skeletons, 31-17-404, deemed “pre-flood” and found in a stretched position, was recorded as “Not Accounted For” as of 1990.

Exploring the extensive records Woolley kept, Hafford was able to find additional information and images of the missing skeleton, including Woolley himself painstakingly removing an Ubaid skeleton intact, covering it in wax, bolstering it on a piece of wood, and lifting it out using a burlap sling. When he queried Dr. Monge about it, she had no record of such a skeleton in her basement storage—but noted that there was a “mystery” skeleton in a box.

When the box was opened later that day, it was clear that this was the same skeleton in Woolley’s field records, preserved and now reunited with its history.

The Skeleton’s History 

After Woolley uncovered the Royal Cemetery, he sought the earliest levels in a deep trench that became known as “The Flood Pit” because, around 40 feet down, it reached a layer of clean, water-lain silt. Though it was apparently the end of the cultural layers, Woolley dug still further. He found burials dug into the silt and eventually another cultural layer beneath. The silt, or “flood layer,” was more than ten feet deep in places.

Reaching below sea level, Woolley determined that the original site of Ur had been a small island in a surrounding marsh. Then a great flood covered the land. People continued to live and flourish at Ur, but the disaster may have inspired legends. The first known recorded story of an epic flood comes from Sumer, now southern Iraq, and it is generally believed to be the historic precursor of the Biblical flood story written millennia later.

The burial that produced the Penn Museum skeleton along with ten pottery vessels was one of those cut into the deep silt. Therefore, the man in it had lived after the flood and was buried in its silt deposits. The Museum researchers have thus nicknamed their re-discovery “Noah,” but, as Dr. Hafford notes, “Utnapishtim might be more appropriate, for he was named in the Gilgamesh epic as the man who survived the great flood.”

Burial PFG/Z with skeleton in the silt deposits as excavated at Ur during the 1929/30field season. Note the semi-crushed skull and the pottery at the feet. Penn Museum Archival Photo #191484. Courtesy Penn Museum

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A lightweight plaster mixture is placed over the covered skeleton to protect it during shipping. The silt is already being cut away under the skeleton to make room for the carrying board. Penn Museum Archival Photo #191487. Courtesy Penn Museum

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Pottery found at the foot of the skeleton during the excavation, now housed in the Penn Museum’s Near East Section storage. From left, object numbers 31-17-289, 31-17-330, and 31-17-302. Photo: Kyle Cassidy, 2014.

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The Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity. Founded in 1887, the Museum has sent more than 300 archaeological and anthropological expeditions to all the inhabited continents of the world. With an active exhibition schedule and educational programming for children and adults, the Museum offers the public an opportunity to share in the ongoing discovery of humankind’s collective heritage. Information: www.penn.museum.

Image captions (top three images, top to bottom): Drs. Janet Monge and William Hafford investigate the 6,500-year-old skeleton (photo: Kyle Cassidy, 2014); A close-up view of the upper body and skull, showing the well-preserved teeth (photo: Kyle Cassidy, 2014); In this archival photo from the excavation, workers carry the complete skeleton on its board up 50 feet of carved stairs and out of Pit F (Penn Museum Archival Photo #191488).

Source: News release of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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The “hobbit” human not a separate species, say scientists

Posted on August 4, 2014 by No Author -

Two recently conducted studies now suggest that the famous “Flores Man” or Homo floresiensis bones, popularly known as the “hobbit”, is actually an example of an abnormally developed ancient small-bodied modern human (Homo sapiens), not a separate ancient human species as has been long theorized or suggested by some scientists.

In the first study, an international team of researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the U.S., the University of Adelaide in Australia, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, U.S., and the National Institutes of Earth Science in Beijing, China, used standard osteometric measurements and high resolution CT scanning and other published data for comparative purposes to determine that the bones of the single specimen “LB1” (Liang Bua 1) that represented the purported new species was more likely an example of a human of our own species who had an abnormal developmental condition. The facial assymetry and abnormally small measurements of the cranial and post-cranial bones were suggestive of a range of measurements not uncommon to a spectrum of abnormal developmental conditions in modern humans, the researchers maintained. Moreover, as the bones represented only a single individual or specimen, and there were no other comparable corroborating specimens either at the original discovery site or elsewhere in the world, the combination of factors shed doubt on the hypothesis that the bones of the individual represented those of a distinct new extinct species of human.

In the second study, also conducted by an international team of researchers (some of whom were also members of the first study), the authors measured the cranial volume of the specimen by filling the cranial cavity with mustard seed, took circumference measurements of the LB1 and members of the extant Rampasasa population of the area using a tape measure, used corresponding measurements from the clinical and paleoanthropological literature, and analyzed the combined data. In this study they concluded that the cranial dimensions of the single skull, along with other bone measurements from the same individual, are consistent with an individual with Down Syndrome [DS] and that other bones from the same population do not display Down-like characteristics: “The Liang Bua Cave skeletal remains demonstrate the existence on Flores, Indonesia, of a small-bodied Australomelanesian population that conforms with its regional and temporal provenance. Against this background, the abundant pathological signs that mark cranial and postcranial morphology of the LB1 individual establish a very high probability of that specimen manifesting DS.”*

Homo floresiensis has been considered by a number of scientists as an extinct species of human that did not fit neatly into the prevailing models or theories of human evolution. Discovered in 2003 by Australian archaeologist Michael Morwood at Liang Bua Cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia, the remains of the 3.5-feet-tall individual with unusual morphological (physical) characteristics was unearthed along with the partial skeletons of nine other individuals. Associated with stone tools from sediments dated from 94,000 to possibly as late as 12,000 years ago, the individual, nick-named the “hobbit” because of the short stature and large feet, has been the subject of intense debate for years. The individual was the only one among the assemblage of remains that featured a complete cranium.

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The LB1 skull specimen. Ryan Somma, Wikimedia Commons

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The island of Flores (shown in red) in Indonesia.

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The two studies have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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*Evolved developmental homeostasis disturbed in LB1 from Flores, Indonesia, denotes Down syndrome and not diagnostic traits of the invalid species Homo floresiensis; www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1407382111

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Did Deforestation Really Lead to Societal Collapse in Chaco Canyon?

Posted on July 28, 2014 by No Author -

It has been a long-accepted notion that the great-house society of the AD 900 to 1150 puebloan Chaco Canyon culture of the American Southwest collapsed because of deforestation to build their impressive communities. It is popularly cited as an example and warning of how human society employs unsustainable land-use practices.

But not so fast, say these researchers.

According to studies conducted by W.H. Wills, Brandon L. Drake and Wetherbee B. Dorshow of the Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, there is no substantial evidence, archaeological or otherwise, to support the contention that the puebloan peoples who built the architecturally impressive 11th-12th century AD structures of Chaco Canyon in present-day New Mexico abandoned their homes and centers in the 13th century because they exhausted their resources—the self-imposed poor-land-use destruction model often cited as a warning by environmentalists and others for our own future.

“There is no direct evidence for human impacts on local woodlands during the Bonito Phase [the period of high construction from AD 850 to 1150], no indication that agricultural fields were destroyed by deforestation or any other process, and, surprisingly, no conclusive information about the amount and sources of archaeological wood,” write the researchers in their Perspective report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Indeed, Chaco residents had available sources of timber and other natural resources that certainly were less costly than those indicated in collapse models.”*

Between about AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that are thought to have been the largest buildings in North America north of Mexico until the 19th century. Some scientists suggest the Chacoans had a sophisticated knowledge of astronomical movements, as many of their buildings appear to have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. But all of this quickly came to an end in the 13th century, when the centers were mysteriously abandoned and were never revived. Many scholars have attributed the collapse to drought and/or deforestation.

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An image of the ruins of Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon (New Mexico, United States); shown is the complex’s great kiva

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An image of Hungo Pavi, located in the central portion of Chaco Canyon (New Mexico, United States). A staircase can be seen leading out of the complex.

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For this study, the researchers based their conclusions on a review of past research, in addition to their own data collections and analysis of archaeological wood and cost-weighted distance to potential tree resources in the nearby regional mountain areas, as well as historical availability of local resources and other factors such as climate change or consistency.

“Our point,” Wills, et al. continue, “is that we do not know where most of the wood in Chaco great houses originated, and we cannot eliminate local (canyon drainage) sources. Consequently there is no basis for concluding that the abandonment of Chaco Canyon was brought on by deforestation, improvident use of natural resources, or unstable exchange relationships, and therefore there is no reason to use Chaco’s history as a warning from the past about societal failure.”*

And changing climate (such as the 50-year drought that commenced in 1130 AD) may not be the culprit either, they maintain.

“Construction patterns indicate that overall energy investment in Chaco great houses began to decline dramatically in the late AD 1000s, before the onset of any documented drought periods, and immigrants appear to have arrived in Chaco during the 12th century drought.”*

Researchers and the public alike may never know. But for the present, at least for these researchers, the story remains very much an open-ended one.

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* Wills, W.H., Brandon, L. Drake, Dorshow, Wetherbee B., Prehistoric deforestation at Chaco Canyon?, Perspective article, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1409646111

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Earlier Stone Age artifacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa

Posted on July 25, 2014 by No Author -

Excavations at an archaeological site at Kathu in the Northern Cape province of South Africa have produced tens of thousands of Earlier Stone Age artifacts, including hand axes and other tools. These discoveries were made by archaeologists from the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa and the University of Toronto (U of T), in collaboration with the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa.

The archaeologists’ research on the Kathu Townlands site, one of the richest early prehistoric archaeological sites in South Africa, was published in the journal, PLOS ONE, on 24 July 2014. It is estimated that the site is between 700,000 and one million years old.

Steven James Walker from the Department of Archaeology at UCT, lead author of the journal paper, says: “The site is amazing and it is threatened. We’ve been working well with developers as well as the South African Heritage Resources Agency to preserve it, but the town of Kathu is rapidly expanding around the site. It might get cut off on all sides by development and this would be regrettable.”

Today, Kathu is a major iron mining center. Walker adds that the fact that such an extensive prehistoric site is located in the middle of a zone of intensive development poses a unique challenge for archaeologists and developers to find strategies to work cooperatively.

The Kathu Townlands site is one component of a grouping of prehistoric sites known as the Kathu Complex. Other sites in the complex include Kathu Pan 1 which has produced fossils of animals such as elephants and hippos, as well as the earliest known evidence of tools used as spears from a level dated to half a million years ago.

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Flakes and cores from Kathu Townlands, Beaumont Excavation. Credit: Steven James Walker & et al.

A: Large flake off the edge of the core consistent with biface shaping removal; B: Large flake with centripedal dorsal scars.; C: Blade, note that there is some cortex (indicated by C in the sketch) and that scars are not parallel; D-F: Small flakes, note that F is off the edge of the core; G: Discoidal core with removals off both faces. Break on one edge (upper edge in right view); H: Discoidal core with one large flake removal. Note that on the right-hand face the working is unclear and it is possible that this is a natural surface.

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Hand axes from surface collection. Credit: Steven James Walker & et al. A-B. Banded Ironstone; C. Quartzite

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Steven James Walker from the Department of Archaeology at UCT extracts a sample at the interface between the overlying red sands and the Earlier Stone Age archaeological deposits at the Kathu Townlands site. Credit: Vasa Lukich.

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Michael Chazan, Director of the Archaeology Center at U of T, emphasizes the scientific challenge posed by the density of the traces of early human activity in this area.

“We need to imagine a landscape around Kathu that supported large populations of human ancestors, as well as large animals like hippos. All indications suggest that Kathu was much wetter, maybe more like the Okavango than the Kalahari. There is no question that the Kathu Complex presents unique opportunities to investigate the evolution of human ancestors in Southern Africa.”

The full journal paper is available online.

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Source: Joint press release of the University of Cape Town and the University of Totonto

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Ancient naval ram found in Phanagoria reveals history of popular unrest in 63 B.C.

Posted on July 25, 2014 by No Author -

Anapa, July 25, 2014 – The Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation announces the discovery of an ancient naval ram used by the army of Mithradates VI of the Bosporan Kingdom to quell a popular uprising against him in Phanagoria in 63 B.C.

One-meter long ram and presumably made of bronze, it has an engraving of Mithradates VI, the king of Pontus from 119 to 63 B.C. who was the most powerful king in Anatolia during the 1^st century B.C. Often called Rome’s greatest enemy, he fought three wars against the Roman republic.

The ram was found in the submerged part of Phanagoria, the largest Greek colony on the Taman peninsula, not far from the 15-meter-long ship that was previously unearthed in 2012. When the ship was first discovered, scientists suggested the ship was an ancient Byzantine merchant vessel. However, the newly-found ram dismisses the previous version and proves that the ship was a bireme, an ancient oared warship with two decks of oars that Mithradates used to quell unrest. The ship was later burned by the protesters in 63 B.C.

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Newly-found naval ram in Phanagoria. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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The Roman historian Appian and the Greek historian Plutarch mentioned a citywide uprising at Phanagoria in 63 B.C. that culminated with the incineration of a huge public building and murder of Mithradates’s children and a wife, Hypsikratia. However, there was no material proof of these events until 2006.

In 2006, scientists involved in the Phanagorian archeological expedition, found a marble gravestone inscribed with an epitaph to “Hypsikrates, wife of Mithradates VI.” In his essays Plutarch referred to Hypsikratia as a woman “who on all occasions showed the spirit of a man and desperate courage; and accordingly the king Mithradates VI used to call her Hypsikrates [the male form of Hypsikratia].” The Archaeological Institute of America named this find one of the ten most exciting discoveries in 2009.

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Hypsikaratia’s marble gravestone found in 2006. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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Thus the ship’s ram continues the series of new discoveries that shed light on the history of the Phanagoria uprising and seemlessly match the historical narratives.

Scientists started to explore Phanagoria in the 18^th century, when it became an essential part of the Russian Empire. The exploration’s active phase, however, began just several years ago, which means archaeologists and historians are almost certain to find more artifacts and information related to Phanagoria, an area that has been something of a bridge between the East and the West for 1,500 years.

Volnoe Delo Foundation, one of Russia’s biggest privately-held charity funds, run by businessman and industrialist Oleg Deripaska, has supported research activities in the 2550-year-old city of Phanagoria since 2004. The Foundation has allocated over $10 million to Phanagoria fieldwork over the past 10 years. Now Phanagoria is one of the best equipped archeological expeditions in Russia, with its own scientific and cultural center, up-to-date equipment for above-ground and underwater excavation and diverse team of specialists involved in the fieldwork.

Among the recent discoveries made at Phanagoria are remains of a palace of Mithradates VI dated the 1^st century B.C., an ancient tomb with a stepped ceiling, the oldest temple unearthed on the Russian territory dating back to the 5^th century B.C. and a number of submerged objects, e.g., the ancient city’s streets covered with sand, Phanagoria’s port structures, and ship debris.

The excavations cover several areas, including the 2,500-square-metre acropolis at the centre of the ancient city, the eastern necropolis, an ancient cemetery that served as a burial place from the very founding of the city, and a submerged part of the city. What makes the expedition unique is the mix of diversified specialists working together. Apart from archeologists and historians, there are anthropologists, soil scientists, paleozoologists, numismatists and other researchers. A complex approach to the study of Phanagoria’s cultural relics helps to restore the residents’ way of living, religious beliefs, economic cooperation, as well as their roles in military conflicts.

“Phanagoria reveals its secrets year by year, showing us the hidden sides of the Black Sea region’s history,” said Vladimir Kuznetsov, Doctor of historical sciences and the head of the Phanagorian expedition. “Our task is to gradually, step by step, go deeper into the ancient times in order to study the circumstances under which people lived thousands of years ago in a thorough and precise way. It is important that we have the opportunity to carry out research using cutting-edge equipment, as well as work in comfortable conditions and carry out overall research of this historic object.”

Said Tamara Rumyantseva, head of Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation: “Phanagoria’s exploration is the Foundation’s top priority project. Now it’s the brightest and best equipped expedition in Russia. We’re constantly expanding our cooperation, and besides the expedition’s support, we have joint publishing projects, we teach future archeologists in the Kuban State University using our scientific and cultural potential to the fullest.”

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Bird’s eye panorama of the Phanagoria acropolis. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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Pottery found in Phanagoria. Courtesy Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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About Phanagoria

Phanagoria is one of the main antiquity monuments on Russian soil. Founded in the mid-sixth century BC by Greek colonists, the city has long been one of the two capitals of the Bosporan Kingdom, an ancient state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. Phanagoria was the major economic and cultural center of the Black Sea region, one of the biggest Greek cities, the first capital of Great Bulgaria, and one of the main cities of Khazar Kaganate. It is also one of the ancient centers of Christianity. Saint Andrew was believed to preach in Phanagoria. The city boasts the largest Jewish community in the Black Sea region: the first synagogue in Russia was built in Phanagoria in the 16th century AD.

In the 9-10th centuries the residents abandoned the city for reasons still unknown. Phanagoria is surrounded by Russia’s largest necropolis covering an area of over 300 hectares. The total volume of the cultural layers is 2.5 million cubic meters of soil; the layer’s depth is up to seven meters. No single building has been erected in the city since ancient times, which has helped preserve the ruins and the historical artifacts. Regular archeological expeditions have been conducted in Phanagoria since late 1930s. As of now, only two percent of the city’s territory has been studied. Phanagoria is located in the Temryuksky District in the Krasnodar region.

About Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

Oleg Deripaska’s Volnoe Delo Foundation (www.volnoe-delo.ru) is one of the largest charity organizations and was founded by the Russian industrialist and businessman, Oleg Deripaska. The Foundation supports a wide range of initiatives, with a particular focus on Russian education and science. It helps to support the country’s cultural and historic heritage, contributes to the preservation of the spiritual values, and assists healthcare projects and solves crucial social problems.

Over the course of its work, the Foundation has found recipients among 86,000 schoolchildren, 4,000 teachers, 8,000 students, 4,000 academics and 1,100 educational, scientific, cultural, healthcare, sport, religious and other institutions.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation press release.

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Dig Reveals More About Maryport Roman Temples Site

Posted on July 24, 2014 by No Author -

A team of archaeologists and volunteers led by Newcastle University’s Professor Ian Haynes and site director Tony Wilmott has been working on the Maryport Roman Temples project dig for the last six weeks.

This is the fourth season of work commissioned by the Senhouse Museum Trust. The aim of the project is to find out more about the complex religious landscape of the Maryport site, next to the Senhouse Roman Museum, where there is a Roman fort and large settlement.

Last year the team re-excavated a rectangular classical temple originally uncovered in the 1880s and were able to recover more detailed information to allow a reconstruction drawing to be made. This year they have concentrated on the area surrounding this and they have re-examined a large stone circular structure next to the rectangular temple. In front of the temple they have found evidence for an open gathering area and the foundations for a large monument.

“The rectangular temple is the most north westerly classical temple in the Roman world to be discovered so far and dates from the 2^nd century,” said Ian Haynes.

“Both this and the circular structure were originally located by local bank manager and amateur archaeologist Joseph Robinson. Photographs and other documents from the 1880s indicate that only part of this area was excavated and much remains to be discovered.

“From this year’s excavation we have evidence for an open area in front of the classical temple and the foundations of a substantial monument, which probably supported a free standing column. A further important discovery was the location of an entrance to the circular structure, indicating that it shared the same alignment as the rectangular temple.

“The finds also show this area, which is to the east of the settlement and north east of the fort, was used in a different way to the main settlement area. The contrast with domestic areas is pronounced and reflects the ritual character of this area.

“We would still like to find out more about exactly where and how the altars found in the 1870s further east of this site were originally displayed here when they were dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter each year by commanders of the fort.

“We have established that when they were ‘buried’ they were actually being reused in the foundations for a large timber building in the 4^th century, but where were they before then? We’re aiming to find more information on this when we return to work here next summer.”

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View of the excavation at the Maryport Temple project site. Courtesy Senhouse Museum Trust

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Community archaeologist Grace Marconi with a piece of a gaming board. Courtesy Senhouse Museum Trust

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The 23 Maryport Roman altars – one excavated by the team in 2012 – form an important part of the collection at the Senhouse Roman Museum. They are the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any single find in Britain.

The information the altars provide is of international importance for the study of the Roman army and its religious practices. The career histories of some of the fort commanders can be established from the inscriptions as they moved from posting to posting across the empire.

Rachel Newman of the Senhouse Museum Trust said: “Each year of the Temples project, with the fantastic support of volunteers and archaeology students on the dig, we’ve been able to build a more detailed picture of this part of the site.

“The digs have inspired more local people and school groups to visit the Senhouse Roman Museum and site too to find out about their amazing heritage.”

Over the six weeks of the dig the team has included sixth form students from Workington, Allonby and Newcastle working alongside adult volunteers and archaeology students from around the UK and from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Albania and France.

Nigel Mills, heritage advisor to the Hadrian’s Wall Trust said: “The Temples project and the Settlement project at Maryport complement each other and show there is much potential to attract more visitors to the Roman sites along the Cumbrian coast. These sites are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, along with Hadrian’s Wall itself.

“Maryport was an important part of the coastal defences of Rome’s north west frontier for over 300 years. Roman citizens from across the Empire came here to make a living supplying soldiers in the fort and elsewhere across the frontier. The temple is evidence of close connections across the Empire. Roman citizens would have felt at home here in Maryport.”

The Senhouse Roman Museum is open every day from 10am to 5pm. More information is at www.senhousemuseum.co.uk.

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Senhouse Roman Museum (www.senhousemuseum.co.uk)

The museum cares for and displays the Netherhall Collection and other collections of Romano-British objects from West Cumbria. It develops permanent and temporary exhibitions, has a growing public engagement programme of events and activities for the general public, specialist groups and education groups, and a proactive research programme on the collection and the site it was recovered from.

The Netherhall Collection, which was begun by the Senhouse family in the 1570s, is the oldest private collection in the country, and is of international importance.

The museum displays the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any site in Britain and unique examples of Romano-British religious sculpture.

It is run by the Senhouse Museum Trust.

World Heritage Site

The Roman fort and civil settlement at Maryport are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site which includes Hadrian’s Wall and its attendant forts.

The FRE WHS represents the borderline of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched from the west coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast.

Source: Senhouse Museum Trust press release

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Penn Museum, Smithsonian Offer Training, Support for Syrian Museum Collections

Posted on July 24, 2014 by No Author -

JULY 2014—In addition to the high toll that Syria’s four-year-old civil war has had on its people and infrastructure, Syria’s cultural heritage has been and continues to be destroyed at an unprecedented rate. World Heritage sites like the historic city of Aleppo and Krak des Chevaliers, as well as medieval Christian cemeteries and numerous archaeological sites and museums, have been subjected to extensive raiding and looting.

In an effort to help stem the loss of the region’s significant cultural heritage, Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force, have come together to offer assistance for museum curators, heritage experts, and civilians working to protect cultural heritage inside Syria. A three-day training program, “Emergency Care for Syrian Museum Collections,” focusing on safeguarding high risk collections, was completed in late June; additional training programs are being planned, pending funding.

“While it is very difficult for international heritage organizations to travel into Syria today, there are a number of Syrians who regularly risk their lives to protect their cultural heritage,” noted Brian Daniels, Ph.D., Director of Research and Programs, Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the Penn Museum. “This workshop and other efforts going forward are designed to support these individuals and their efforts.”

About 20 people from several Syrian provinces attended the first training, held in an undisclosed location outside of Syria, and facilitated by Dr. Daniels; Corine Wegener, cultural heritage preservation officer, Smithsonian Institution; and Robert Patterson, exhibits specialist, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. Workshop leaders were joined by Syrian scholars Salam al-Kuntar, lecturer, University of Pennsylvania; Amr Al-Azm, chair of the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force and associate professor, Shawnee State University; and Ali Othman, researcher, Université of Paris I. Technical assistance for the program was provided by the U.S. Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.) and The Day After Association (Brussels, Belgium), a Syrian-led civil society NGO. The training was funded by the Smithsonian and the J. M. Kaplan Fund (New York).

The objectives of the workshop were three-fold: to offer information on how to secure museum collections safely during emergencies; to provide participants with basic supplies for packing and securing museum collections, and to begin a dialogue among Syrian participants about emergency responses. “This workshop fits the model of heritage preservation promoted by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center,” said Richard M. Leventhal, the Center’s Executive Director. “Local communities are best equipped to identify heritage in need of preservation and protection, and this is precisely what is happening in Syria. We are pleased to work alongside communities in Syria and other places around the world to support these efforts.”

Conditions at the Ma’arra Museum in Idlib province, famous for its collections of Byzantine mosaics, were a subject of much discussion and concern. The museum has received collateral damage in the fighting and come under direct attack by ISIS units. The workshop was able to offer some suggestions for stabilization in the current situation and provide emergency conservation supplies.

Ms. Wegener stressed the importance of bringing people together in a collaborative environment to address situations like those in Syria. “Workshops like these allow us to work directly with the cultural heritage professionals and activists who are on the ground caring for damaged and at-risk collections. We provide them practical information about protecting collections and sites, along with critically needed supplies and equipment. In return, we learn a great deal from our Syrian colleagues.”

While June’s emergency training program is seen as a critical first step, Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with the cooperation of the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force, are gearing up to launch an extensive new project to document current conditions and future preservation needs, tracking and reporting intentional damage and destruction to cultural heritage sites in Syria.

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About the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum

Dedicated to supporting cultural heritage initiatives, the Penn Cultural Heritage Center (PennCHC) brings considerable experience in training, capacity building, and basic research about cultural heritage and cultural policy. It has led several projects in conjunction with the U.S. government, including a research partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Mission to UNESCO to increase the empirical information known about the World Heritage program as it exists in the United States and abroad. PennCHC’s capabilities are enhanced by the world-class archaeological and anthropological faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and the curators of the Penn Museum.

About the Smithsonian Institution

Since its founding in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution has been committed to inspiring generations through knowledge and discovery. The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities. There are 6,500 Smithsonian employees and 6,300 volunteers. There were 30 million visits to the Smithsonian in 2013. The total number of objects, works of art and specimens at the Smithsonian is estimated at nearly 137 million, including more than 126 million specimens and artifacts at the National Museum of Natural History.

Cover Photo: Damage to the Eastern Hall of the Ma’arra Museum, Idlib Province, Syria. Photo courtesy Ali Othman and the Ma’arra Museum.

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‘Pompeii of the north’ revealed by archaeologists

Posted on July 22, 2014 by No Author -

Excavations at a Roman site in County Durham have revealed the ‘Pompeii of the north’, say archaeologists. The spectacular discoveries at Binchester Roman Fort near Bishop Auckland have uncovered some of the most well preserved remnants of an empire dating back some 1800 years ago, including one of the earliest pieces of evidence for Christianity in Roman Britain in the shape of a silver ring.

The archaeologists have also discovered a bath house with seven-foot high walls, which were once covered with brightly covered painted designs, the original floor, doorways and window openings, as well as an inscribed altar dedicated to the Roman Goddess, Fortune the Home-bringer.

Dr. David Mason, principal archaeologist, Durham County Council, said: “These findings are hugely significant as they are virtually intact and present a graphic illustration of life under the Roman Empire. They are so stunning and spectacular that we can claim we have our very own ‘Pompeii of the north’ right on our doorstep.”

The excavation project, now in its sixth year, is a joint venture between archaeologists at Durham County Council, Durham University, the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland land and several American universities.

Project coordinator, Dr David Petts, lecturer in archaeology at Durham University, said: “Our excavations have uncovered parts of one of the best preserved Roman buildings in Britain. The building itself and the wonderful array of artefacts we have recovered from Binchester give us an unparalleled opportunity to better understand life on the northern frontier in the Roman period.

“For example, the altar is a reminder that bath houses were about more than keeping clean and exercising and were actually social centres – a bit like our modern day leisure centres.

“The most unique feature of these remains is the sheer scale of their preservation. It is possible to walk through a series of Roman rooms with walls all above head height; this is pretty exceptional for Roman Britain.”

The altar has been inscribed by a retired trooper who served with a unit of the Spanish cavalry based at Binchester. The trooper described his rank as “architectus” and this is the only example from the whole of the Roman Empire, outside of Rome itself, which shows that architects were on the staff of auxiliary cavalry units and not just the legions of the Emperor’s personal protection unit, the Praetorian Guard.

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Bath house structure unearthed during excavations at Binchester Fort. Courtesy Durham University and Binchester Research Project

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The ring with Christian symbol. Courtesy Durham University and Binchester Research Project

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The findings coincide with the Roman festival being held at Binchester next weekend (July 26 and 27), where there will be guided tours of the recent excavations. The festival also features several re-enactment groups.

Last year, a first year Durham University student working at Binchester found a 1,800-year-old carved stone head of what is believed to be a Roman god.

The Roman fort at Binchester lies above the River Wear just outside the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham. Known to the Romans as Vinovia, it commanded the main road that ran from the legionary headquarters at York northwards to Hadrian’s Wall. It formed a key element of the complex frontier system that lay both sides of the Wall that marked the northern-most edge of the Roman Empire for nearly four hundred years. The fort itself was built to house a cavalry regiment in the early years of Roman control in Northern England. It housed troops from across the Empire, including Spain and Germany. It was not just a military site—a thriving civilian settlement (vicus) grew up at its gates.

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Source: Edited and adapted from a Durham University press release.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavations showing bath house structure. Courtesy Durham University and Binchester Research Project

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Archaeologist Promotes Wonders of Digital Archaeology

Posted on July 21, 2014 by No Author -

A beautifully and precisely rendered 3D map of an emerging new archaeological site;

An exact replica of a rare and priceless artifact you can hold in your hand, for study or to just set on your shelf;

An authentically fact-based image of an ancient palace, reconstructed digitally to show how it would have looked in its full splendor before it became a ruin for study by archaeologists following the ravages of time;

High-tech “eyes” that can see ancient structures hidden from the naked eye by thick forest overgrowth.

These are but a few examples of what the emerging new science of digital archaeology can offer the interested scholar and public alike. It is, in a very real sense, revolutionizing the way scientists do archaeology, and the way the general public can see and share in the experience of the discoveries in the field.

One archaeologist is on a mission to bring the new science out of its ivory tower and before the public eye. Ashley Richter, who worked and studied as a researcher in cultural heritage diagnostics at the University of California San Diego’s Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology, describes herself as “a laser scanning, 3D printing, digital archaeologist and artist”. She’s seen field work in the United States, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, and most recently, all over Italy. Now, she’s capitalizing on her digital expertise to promote a concept she calls “Open Access Antiquarianism“.

“It’s a collaborative project between archaeologists and computer scientists on the intersection between art, archaeology and technology to encourage people to access and become active with digital heritage,” Richter explains. “After pushing the technological limits of data capture and archaeological visualization at sites like Petra and Palazzo Vecchio, we’d like to take the tools and methodologies we’ve been building and promote archaeology with it in the public sphere.”

To kickstart the movement, she is digitally organizing a Cabinet of Curiosities show of archaeological LiDAR printed furniture (what she calls “literal armchair archaeology”), 3D printed archaeological artifacts, and point cloud visualization for anyone to peruse. In addition, she has joined with Popular Archaeology in a collaborative effort to get the word out on the world of digital archaeology through her blog, Adventures in Digital Archaeology, which can be reached directly at the original website or an ongoing basis at the magazine site.

But whether or not Richter’s campaign gains traction, it is clear that the field of digital archaeology is here to stay as an increasingly important element in archaeological research and presentation— not to mention that it will—at least for those of us who are not into digging in the dirt and reading technical reports—make it all a whole lot more fun.

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Richter’s compilation of recent data for display on the Qualcomm Institute V-Room Wall for UCSD’s TEDX open forum (In the foreground: one of the CISA3 drones used in data collection).

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Richter laser scanning the exterior of the Baptistery of St. Giovanni, Florence.

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Above: 3D printer model Richter helped to develop as part of a “Russian Dolls” series building up from a mini size to an eventual large diagnostic dollhouse of the Baptistery of St. Giovanni in Florence. It was built from photos during a diagnostic survey in 2013 with the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego.

* Images provided courtesy Ashley Richter

Below, Richer shows what digital archaeology can do for mapping ‘hard-to-get-to’ places, especially if they’re due for imminent destruction by modern day plans:

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Archaeologists Uncover Lost Population of Ancient Amarna

Posted on July 17, 2014 by No Author -

It remained a mystery for decades.

Since archaeologist F.Ll. Griffith’s excavations in the 1920’s at the ancient site of the pharaoh Akhenaten’s short-lived new capital city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna), archaeologists have been puzzled about the whereabouts of the remains of the city’s commoner population – the people who toiled to build and maintain Akhenaten’s sacred edifices and infrastructure — and more specifically, the estimated 6,000 people who died during the short 15-year period of the city’s construction and development.

“A will-of-the-wisp, the dream of a rich unplundered cemetery of the middle classes at El-Amarneh, full of choice vases and amulets, beckons to each successive explorer,” wrote Griffith in the report for his 1923 excavation season.*

Many of the elaborate unfinished rock-cut tombs of Akhenaten’s elite courtiers and high officials had already been found. They grace the cliff faces of the northern end of the Amarna city plain and the face of a low escarpment at the southern end of the ancient city. They can be plainly seen today by modern visitors.

But the burials of the deceased of the estimated 30,000 commoners and laborers remained elusive – until 2001, when archaeologist Barry Kemp of the University of Cambridge began to see the first signs. Kemp has directed excavations and surveys at Amarna for the Egypt Exploration Society since 1977.

“The puzzle seems now to have been solved,” says Kemp. “ It has come about through the desert GPS survey begun in 2001 and continued in subsequent years. First came the discovery of two cemeteries (clearly robbed) of what must be relatively poor graves on the flat desert not far from tomb no. 6 (of Panehesy), the southernmost of the North Tombs. The surface pottery is appropriate to the Amarna period. In 2003 a third cemetery was discovered on the east side of a narrow wadi which runs back into the low escarpment behind tomb 25 of the South Tombs group. In 2004 two further cemeteries likely to be of the Amarna Period were located on the floor of another wadi which cuts through the cliffs where the North Tombs are located.”**

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Project map of Akhetaten, showing locations of tomb areas and progress as of 2006. Courtesy the Amarna Project

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Above: Plan of the South Tombs Cemetery showing excavation areas. Courtesy Helen Fenwick and the Amarna Project

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View of the interior of the tomb of Panehesy. Mutnedjet, Wikimedia Commons

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Most recently, from 2006 to 2013, Kemp’s excavation team has uncovered artifacts and bones from a cemetery site located near the South Tombs, a site where preliminary evidence indicated that it held the burials of a poorer class of people. “Of the various cemeteries located it is the one that has the most varied material present on the surface, including late 18^th Dynasty sherds, a few pieces of glass vessel and faience, and mud bricks,” states Kemp and colleagues. But, Kemp continues, “it has been partly washed away by occasional floods that have swept down it and across the desert plain in front. The floods left behind a scatter of human bones along both the sandy floor of the wadi and the watercourses that cross the desert plain beyond.”**

Flooding hasn’t been the only challenge faced by researchers at the site. Extensive looting has taken its toll, resulting in additional bones and sherds scattered out of their original contexts across the site and creating urgent pressure to record what remains before it is lost.

Under the direction of Jerry Rose of the University of Arkansas, Project experts have been examining the skeletal remains. “Preliminary indications are that they lived hard, short lives,” reports Kemp and colleagues.** In 2015, examination of the skeletal remains will continue, and Kemp hopes to begin excavating at locations near the North Tomb.

The pharaoh Akhenaten, best known as the ‘heretic pharaoh’, employed thousands of workers and officials to build and administer the city of Akhetaten (Amarna) as his new capital on virgin land north of Thebes in Middle Egypt. Dedicated to the veneration of his new monotheistic religion of worship to the Aten, construction commenced in or around Year 5 of his reign (1346 BC) and is thought to have been completed by Year 9 (1341 BC). Unlike all other ancient Egyptian cities, it is the only one that preserved details of its internal plans. This city, however, was short-lived, lasting only 15 years until Akhenaten’s death. Akhenaten’s son Tutankhamun moved the capital back to Thebes upon his father’s death and returned Egyptian worship to its former pantheon of gods.

More information about the Amarna Project can be obtained at the website, where individuals may also find a utility to donate to support the project efforts. Those interested in participating in the project may also visit the applicable University of Arkansas website.

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* JEA 10, 1924, 303-304.

** _{http://www.amarnaproject.com/}

Cover Image, Top Left: View of the South Tomb area at Amarna. Kurohito, Wikimedia Commons

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Archaeologists Find Evidence of Significant Plant Use Before Agriculture

Posted on July 16, 2014 by No Author -

At a prehistoric site called Al Khiday, set along the White Nile in Central Sudan, archaeologist have uncovered evidence that shows prehistoric inhabitants there consumed significant quantities of a plant that contains both nutritional and medicinal qualities.

By sampling and analyzing chemical compounds and microfossils from the calcified dental plaque of human teeth from 14 individuals in burial grounds at the site spanning three different periods, the pre-Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Later Meroitic age, they were able to determine that humans ingested a specific plant, known as purple nut sedge, for at least 7,000 years, incorporating both pre-agricultural and agricultural periods. Widely regarded today as a weed and a nuisance, purple nut sedge apparently was an important staple in the diet of this prehistoric population, say the researchers in a study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“By extracting material from samples of ancient dental calculus, we have found that rather than being a nuisance in the past, the purple nut sedge’s value as a food, and possibly its abundant medicinal qualities, were known,” says lead study author Karen Hardy. “We also discovered that these people ate several other plants, and we found traces of smoke, evidence for cooking, and for chewing plant fibres to prepare raw materials. These small biographical details add to the growing evidence that prehistoric people had a detailed understanding of plants long before the development of agriculture.”

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Above: One of the Late Meroitic graves excavated at the cemetery, that of a young male. Courtesy Donatella Usai/Centro Studi Sudanesi and Sub-Sahariani (CSSeS)

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The finding provides insight about how much prehistoric people knew about the ecology and potential therapeutic properties of plants. In addition to the nutritional benefits of purple nut sedge, for example, it inhibits a specific kind of Streptococcus that helps to lower the level of cavities. It explains why the teeth of the excavated skeletons at the site exhibited comparatively low levels of cavity formation.

The study is published in the July 16, 2014 issue of the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stephen Buckley from the University of York and colleagues.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a University of York press release.

The study: Buckley S, Usai D, Jakob T, Radini A, Hardy K (2014) Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan. PLoS ONE 9(7): e100808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100808

Funding: Archaeological fieldwork was funded by The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Centro Studi Sudanesi e SubSahariani. The equipment used belongs to Pharos Research (UK) and Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation research project (grant number HAR2012-35376). The research described in this submission was unfunded. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Archaeologists Discover One of the Oldest Known Clovis Hunting Sites in North America

Posted on July 14, 2014 by No Author -

When University of Arizona archaeologist Vance Holliday and colleagues began uncovering large fossilized bones at the site of El Fin del Mundo in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico in 2007, they weren’t sure what kind of animal they were unearthing.

“At first, just based on the size of the bone, we thought maybe it was a bison, because the extinct bison were a little bigger than our modern bison,” said Holliday, who has been researching geoarchaeology at Paleoindian sites across the U.S. for years.

Then, in 2008, they discovered something that clinched it for them.

“We finally found the mandible, and that’s what told the tale,” Holliday said.

It was a gomphothere. Actually, two of them. About the same size as a modern elephant, but smaller than their extinct cousins the mammoths, gomphotheres were once widespread in North America but were thought to have disappeared from the fossil record long before humans arrived in North America some 13,000 to 13,500 years ago.

Until now.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal flecks and burned bone found within the context of the fossils indicated a reliable age of 13,390 years. This made these two gomphotheres the last known gomphotheres in North America.

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Gomphothere mandible in place, upside down, at El Fin del Mundo excavation site. The fossil was fully prepared at the INAH zooarchaeology lab in Mexico City. Image courtesy of Vance T. Holliday.

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The fully excavated and prepared gomphothere mandible. Courtesy Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales/Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

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These sculptures, made by Mexican artist Sergio de la Rosa, show three elephant ancestors: (from left to right) the mastodon, the mammoth and the gomphothere. Courtesy Sergio de la Rosa

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But there was more.

As they excavated among the bones, they also uncovered human artifacts—Clovis artifacts, to be specific—including 7 projectile points, some stone cutting tools and 21 flint flakes from stone tool-making. The position and proximity of the Clovis fragments relative to the gomphothere bones at the site suggested that humans did in fact kill the two animals there. Of the seven points found at the site, four were in place among the bones, including one with bone and teeth fragments above and below. The other three points had eroded away from the bone bed and were found scattered nearby. This suggested that the gomphomeres were likely hunted and thus constituted a Clovis prey species, along with mammoths, mastodons, and bison, already known to have been hunted by the Clovis.

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A clear quartz Clovis point found near the bone bed at El Fin del Mundo. Although very difficult to shape into a tool, quartz was used by Clovis tool makers at several sites. Courtesy INAH Sonora.

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“This is the first Clovis gomphothere, it’s the first archaeological gomphothere found in North America, it’s the first evidence that people were hunting gomphotheres in North America, and it adds another item to the Clovis menu,” Holliday said.

The Clovis culture, today considered the oldest clearly defined and recognized Paleoindian culture in the Americas, is characterized by its distinctive stone tools, particularly the fluted projectile points. The first examples of this culture were discovered by archaeologists near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1930s. The El Fin del Mundo site, along with the Aubrey site in Texas, is now among two sites that show the earliest solid evidence of Clovis hunting in North America, indicating that the earliest widespread and recognizable group of hunter-gatherers were already in place 13,390 years ago in the North American Southwest.

Holliday and colleagues suggest that the finds support the model of an American southwestern origin for the Clovis material culture. As they conclude in the study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

“These data expand our understanding of the age range for Clovis, Clovis diet, raw material preference, and the late Pleistocene megafaunal assemblage of North America, and provide evidence for a southern origin of the Clovis technocomplex.”*

Holliday and the study team report that the radiocarbon ages from El Fin del Mundo were made based on testing the site’s charcoal, shell, and organic matter at the Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory.

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*Article #14-04546: “Human (Clovis)–gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico,” by Vance T. Holliday et al.

In addition to Holliday, authors of the PNAS paper include: lead author Guadalupe Sanchez, who has a doctorate in anthropology from the UA; UA alumni Edmund P. Gaines and Susan M. Mentzer; UA doctoral candidates Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña and Andrew Kowler; UA master’s student Ismael Sanchez-Morales; UA scientists Todd Lange and Gregory Hodgins; and Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

The dig at El Fin del Mundo, a joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico, was funded by the UA School of Anthropology’s Argonaut Archaeological Research Fund, the National Geographic Society, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and The Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson.

Source: Some material for this article was adapted and edited from a University of Arizona press release, Meet the gomphothere: UA archaeologist involved in discovery of bones of elephant ancestor

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Archaeologists Investigate a Massive Ancient Mycenaean Citadel

Posted on July 10, 2014 by No Author -

A team of archaeologists is surveying and excavating the remains of a major ancient Mycenaean citadel—an archaeological site featuring ruins that are turning out to be much more extensive than what meets the naked eye.

Under the leadership of Associate Professor Christofilis Maggidis of Dickinson College and the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society, teams of specialists have been systematically surveying an imposing, island-like, flat-topped bedrock outcrop that rises 20-40 meters above a surrounding plain with a summit area stretching 49.5 acres at the northeastern edge of the Kopais basin in southeastern Greece. Known as the citadel of Glas and identified as consisting of ancient Mycenaean structures, the summit area featuring the ruins is estimated to measure ten times the size of the ancient citadel of Mycenaean Tiryns and seven times that of Mycenae, the famed city of Agamemnon of Homer’s Iliad.

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Map shows the region (red) of Greece wherein the Kopais basin and Glas are located. Wikimedia Commons

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Boeotia, where the Kopais basin and Glas are located, in the context of the nearby ancient central regions of Greece. Ministerofbadtimes, Wikimedia Commons

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Aerial view of Glas in the midst of the surrounding plain, showing massive Cyclopean walls enclosing and defining the site of the ancient remains. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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“I first excavated at Glas in 1990 as a graduate student with my mentor, the late Spyros Iakovidis,” said Maggidis. “The unparalleled size of the citadel, its connection with the gigantic drainage project of Kopais, and the discovery of such important but few remains in the citadel indicating that the rest of the citadel was left vacant puzzled me since then.”

Begun in the 14th century BC, the drainage project of Kopais was a large-scale engineering effort of massive proportions which transformed the Kopais basin into what became the most fertile plain on mainland Greece. The ancient engineers drained marshland through a complex drainage control system, diverting six rivers and streams from the basin into two enormous canals that converged at the northeastern edge of the Kopais basin. The canals were flanked by massive embankments reinforced at some locations with double Cyclopean revetments that supported roads and were supplied with underground drains and channels directing water overflow into artificial polders, natural cavities and sinkholes, or to the Larymna bay. Archaeologists estimate that as much as 2,000,000 cubic meters of earth were moved to build dykes and embankments along the periphery of the basin, with more than 250,000 cubic meters of stone used to face the embankments.

Thought to be the administrative center for this expansive system, the citadel of Glas was protected by a massive Cyclopean wall about 5.50-5.80 meters thick, running along the edge of the natural outcrop summit platform and defining the periphery of the citadel for approximately 3 kilometers, featuring four gates and a cluster of three adjacent central enclosures. But, said Maggidis, “the citadel of Glas presented the lay-out of a fort with certain spatial peculiarities: only one third or less of the total area of the citadel (49.5 acres) seemed to be occupied by various buildings and structures (administrative buildings, storage facilities, workshops, kitchens, personnel residence quarters), whereas no other ruins had been located so far by surface survey anywhere else in the citadel.” The space outside the central enclosures, in other words, appeared to be void of structures. Why?

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The ancient gate structures of Glas. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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General plan of the Glas site. Note the gaps where no structures are visible. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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Structures excavated in area A (see the larger plan above this image) at the site. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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For Maggidis, this just didn’t add up.

“I was convinced that Glas was much more than a fort administrating the drainage works of the Kopais lake and the local agricultural production, and decided to investigate the site further.”

And investigate he did.

Beginning in 2010, Maggidis and colleagues conducted a systematic geophysical survey of the citadel using ground penetrating radar (GPR), a Fluxgate gradiometer, electrical resistivity, and satellite imagery. The team focused primarily on unexplored areas and some already excavated sectors.

The results were illuminating.

“The citadel of Glas was not left void of structures outside the central enclosures after all, but was apparently covered with many buildings of various uses, including at least five large and well-built complexes, extensive residential quarters and clusters of buildings stretching between these complexes, (semi)circular structures (silos?), a cistern, staircases, retaining walls and terraces. This is the picture of a fortified town.”

Maggidis and colleagues had come much closer to uncovering the true proportions and complexity of the citadel. But looking ahead, he sees much more to be done.

“The systematic investigation of the Mycenaean citadel of Glas will continue and intensify in the next decade,” says Magiddis. “The geophysical survey will focus on the eastern (Sector IV) and the western part of the citadel (Sector V), while systematic excavation will target select building complexes, clusters, and structures.”

More information about the Glas survey and excavations can be obtained at the project website. A detailed article about the discoveries at the citadel of Glas will be published in the upcoming September issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Archives: Articles

Archaeological Finds of Ancient Arabia to be Shown

Beginning October 11, 2014 and showing through June 7, 2015, The Smithsonian Institution will be exhibiting a selection of artifacts, film and photography from one of the largest archaeological expeditions to two ancient sites in present-day Yemen.

Archaeologists Find Humans Were Eating Snails 30,000 Years Ago

Study Sheds Light on Human Evolution

Scientists Confirm Richard III Led a Royal Lifestyle

Archaeologists of Time Team America Return for Second Season

Egyptian mummification started much earlier than previously thought, say researchers

Archaeologists Reveal the Stories of Two 18th Century American Ships

6,500-Year-Old Skeleton Newly “Discovered” in the Penn Museum

The “hobbit” human not a separate species, say scientists

Did Deforestation Really Lead to Societal Collapse in Chaco Canyon?

Earlier Stone Age artifacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa

Ancient naval ram found in Phanagoria reveals history of popular unrest in 63 B.C.

Dig Reveals More About Maryport Roman Temples Site

Penn Museum, Smithsonian Offer Training, Support for Syrian Museum Collections

‘Pompeii of the north’ revealed by archaeologists

Archaeologist Promotes Wonders of Digital Archaeology

Archaeologists Uncover Lost Population of Ancient Amarna

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Significant Plant Use Before Agriculture

Archaeologists Discover One of the Oldest Known Clovis Hunting Sites in North America

Archaeologists Investigate a Massive Ancient Mycenaean Citadel

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