Archaeologists excavating at Jamestown, Virginia, the site of America’s first successful English colony, have uncovered two deep posthole features 24 feet apart in the area of the 1607 James Fort, evidencing a possible structure that has not heretofore been discovered among the many finds and features that have already come to light at the historic excavation site.
A posthole in archaeology is a patch, usually circular, of darker or discolored earth that reveals the location of timber or a wood beam that was placed in the ground to support or define a structure that once existed at a site. Being organic, the timber or wood beam usually would have long decomposed, leaving a visible trace in the soil that archaeologists can recogize while excavating.
Dr. William M. Kelso, head of archaeological research at Historic Jamestowne, believes the structure could be one of several possible constructions by early colonists at the Fort site: a blockhouse, a paling wall, or features of the corners of separate buildings. The archaeologists point out that historical accounts record the existence of a blockhouse and a paling wall.
Regarding the former, they state that the literature refers to the colonists taking refuge within a blockhouse near the end of the “starving time” winter of 1609-1610, when about two-thirds of the colonists died. Lord De La Warr is recorded to have arrived on a resupply ship in June 1610 to find the fort in a dilapidated condition. “Only the blockhouse,” wrote De La Warr, “somewhat regarded, was the safety of the remainder that lived, …” William Strachey, a writer-historian and short-term Jamestown colonist, in his account of that winter, also wrote “And it is true the Indian killed as fast without, if our men stirred but beyond the bounds of their blockhouse, …”
Strachey also described a wall, known as a paling, which was typically made of planks and posts, to the East of the original triangular palisade wall of the 1607 James Fort. Said Kelso, “having posts in that kind of wall that are 24 feet apart is a long distance, but it could be. Making trees into clapboards, flat and rough, means you can get more of a wall out of fewer trees.”*
The first posthole was found in August, 2013, in the vicinity of a visitor walkway. The second was found in September to the south of the first. In their attempt to further define the structure, they then opened a new excavation section to the east of the second to find a possible third posthole that they suspect may be 12 feet away. But there is still a lot more work ahead of them before they can draw any conclusions.
“We are speculating at this stage and we won’t know any time soon because we have a lot of dirt to move,” Kelso said.*
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
They are working hard at an underwater grave of an 18th century shipwreck. It is a delicate operation, requiring patient and methodical movement by a team of divers to extract a precious assembly of historic artifacts. It is colloquially named “The Pile”, a concretion of objects that consists of a large anchor lying over seven cannon, other artifacts, and a natural encrustation that has built up over nearly 300 years. This is the wreckage site of the famous pirate Blackbeard’s flagship Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), just off the coast near Beaufort, North Carolina.
“The immense amount of iron concentrated in this area has provided a host of nutrients for sea life, which in turn has supplemented the amount of encrustation surrounding the artifacts, essentially turning eight separate iron objects into one giant mass,” reports Kimberly Kenyon, Conservator with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resource’s Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR) Project. “Excavation of the pile will require hammers and chisels used with the utmost care. It will be tedious and time-consuming, and will hopefully provide an array of objects trapped within the concretion. Additionally, new excavation units will be opened around the pile as well as north of it as work continues toward the bow of the ship.”*
To date, more than 280,000 artifacts have already been recovered since serious exploration began in 1996, including at least 15 cannon, ship timbers, 2 anchors, pewter flatware, medical instruments, gun parts, cannon shot, gold grains, glass wine bottles, and ceramic pieces, to name but a few of the types. And like “The Pile”, the focus of their current efforts, many of these finds were recovered together in groups in the form of concretions, hardened conglomerations of sand, shells, and coral which began to build up around artifacts, especially iron objects, soon after they were deposited on the seabed in 1718. Over 2,500 concretions have been recovered, each one containing a multitude of artifacts ranging from glass beads to rigging elements and cannon balls.
Above: A portion of the hull of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, as it rested still in place on the sea floor. Credit: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
For the QAR Project Director John “Billy Ray” Morris and colleagues, the work of excavating and conserving the finds has not been easy. Underwater archaeology presents a complexity and set of challenges that markedly differ from what an archaeologist might typically encounter on a more conventional dry surface, or “terrestrial” excavation. Weather and water conditions can profoundly affect the safety and feasibility of an underwater excavation, unlike the conditions that would be encountered with a dry surface excavation, and archaeologists must don wetsuits and scuba geer and plunge into watery depths to a place that is nothing like the world at the surface. The methodology and equipment are specially adapted, and even after the artifacts are recovered, often a long process of artifact protection, preparation and conservation must take place before they can be studied, further documented and displayed for public view.
But Morris makes clear that, while the artifacts themselves are very exciting and will provide a tangible image for scientists, historians and the public about a chapter in North America’s past, it is really ultimately about the information they will afford.
“The investigation and interpretation of the QAR site will provide information on a variety of topics focused on early 18th century seafaring,” says Morris. “This includes the slave trade, vessel construction, privateering, vessel adaptation by functional necessity, and pirate practices and tactics from the “Golden Age of Piracy”. Additional venues for study and interpretation will encompass the history of North Carolina during the Proprietary Period (when ownership and management of land was granted to certain Lords on behalf of the King or Queen), and the complex relationship between the pirates, North Carolina, and her neighboring colonies.”
Blackbeard, variously known as Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, was among the most historically prominent pirates of the “Golden Age of Piracy”, a period from the 1650’s to the 1730’s when there was a relative profusion of capturing and plundering of cargo ships and commercial ports by private, independent maritime-based robbers. Blackbeard was a notorious English privateer-turned-pirate who operated in the Caribbean and the eastern coast of the American colonies. His best-known vessel was the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a captured and converted French slave ship.
The archaeologists say this phase of the excavations began in early August and is expected to last about three months.
Reports Kenyon, “we are always most hopeful to find the actual wooden structure of the hull of the ship beneath what we can now see, and with work continuing around the pile, it is very promising that hull remains may have been protected by the cannon lying on top……. Hopefully, we will also have an opportunity to raise two cannon and two large cask hoop concretions, which the un-cooperative June weather prevented us from collecting.”*
More detailed information about the QAR (Queen Anne’s Revenge) Project can be obtained at the project website.
In addition, a free premium article about the project and the discoveries is also available in the September issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.
Cover Photo, Top Left: Diver works at the underwater wreckage site of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Credit: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
With a team of 50 students and additional help from workmen, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of structures at the site of ancient Argilos on the coast of Macedonia, reporting that the finds will help open an additional window on the development and economy of one of the earliest Greek colonies in an area that was previously settled by the Thracians. Among the discoveries was a large portico consisting of at least seven storerooms. (Popular Archaeology)
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Thracian carriage and two horses that appear to have been buried upright. The chariot and horse skeletons are 2,500-years-old and were discovered in the village of Svestari in north-east Bulgaria. The two-wheeled carriage and carcasses of the horses were found in a Thracian tomb along with some decorations. (www.novinite.com)
A mysterious fire which destroyed North America’s greatest ancient civilization has led to fascinating discoveries about social tensions, violent tendencies and religious practices within the society. The city of Cahokia, whose secrets lie underneath where St Louis, Missouri now stands, was ruined by a huge blaze around the year 1170 CE. Following the disaster, the Native American city changed dramatically – defense walls were built, buildings fortified and a sun symbol incorporated into designs. (www.dailymail.co.uk)
As Indiana Jones once said, “X never, ever marks the spot.” That is what is making things difficult for an archaeology team as it examines the original Socorro Mission site for the remains of a Native American village, a lost cemetery or anything else that “belongs in a museum.” The Texas Historical Commission sent the team this week to Socorro to see if the old Socorro Mission site can be expanded, and protected, by any discovery the team can make. (Beaumontenterprise.com)
It’s the most significant archaeological discovery in the Portsmouth area for many years. Buried a few feet under a garden in the centre of Havant, archaeologists stumbled upon a Roman well filled with coins and a bronze ring with a carving of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. Perhaps most intriguing was the discovery of eight dog skeletons at the bottom of the well. (FreeRepublic.com)
The pyramids are the most distinctive and best-known feature of ancient Egypt. The pyramids are the symbols of ancient Egyptian civilization and reflect the great power of the Egyptian kings, known today as pharaohs. Today there are at least 118 known pyramids, all of which were constructed during the Old Kingdom (2575 BCE to 2150 BCE). (Daily Kos)
With a team of 50 students and additional help from workmen, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of structures at the site of ancient Argilos on the coast of Macedonia, reporting that the finds will help open an additional window on the development and economy of one of the earliest Greek colonies in an area that was previously settled by the Thracians.
Among the discoveries was a large portico consisting of at least seven storerooms.
“The building is in a remarkable state of preservation, and five rooms have been partially excavated this year,” report excavation co-directors Zizis Bonias of Greece’s 18th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and Jacques Perreault of the University of Montreal. “In its early state, the building probably dates back to the 6th century BC.”*
The portico is just one of a number of well-preserved finds at the site, colonized, according to the literary tradition, by Greeks during the 7th century, around 655/654 B.C., making Argilos “the earliest greek colony on the Thracian coast”.** Though the settlement was established in what at the time was territory inhabited by the ancient Thracians (a civilization of Indo-European tribes occupying a large region of Central and Southeastern Europe), archaeologists have thus far uncovered no clear signs of conflict between the two co-existing cultures at the site during that time, and one of the goals of the investigations is to explore the nature of the relationship between the Greeks and the Thracians at that location.
Four kilometers West of the Strymona river delta, the ancient city is set on a hill known as Palaiokastro. The site was first identified by P. Perdrizet in 1883 by referencing the writings of Herodotus, who wrote that the Persians encountered Argilos after crossing the Strymona river on their way to conquer Athens. The first limited excavations were conducted by the Greek archaeological service in the 70’s, uncovering several tombs of the ancient city’s necropolis. But the first serious systematic research did not begin until 1992 by a joint Greek-Canadian team.
The current excavations are being conducted by the Greek-Canadian Archaeological Mission of Argilos, a collaborative effort between the Ephoria of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Kavala and the University of Montreal. The excavations have revealed a significant number of architectural structures, including a large 5-meter wide street leading from what has been identified as a port, to the acropolis on the hill. According to the archaeologists, buildings, both public and domestic, lined this street. “Some of these buildings are extremely well preserved, with walls up to 4 meters high,” report Bonias and Perreault. “This state of preservation helps us understand the way they were built and, thus, enables us to propose realistic reconstructions of the main buildings.”***
“In the deepest levels, however, the excavators only found pottery of Thracian origin or vases which come from the chalcidiki peninsula,” the authors continue. “This tends to show that the site of Argilos was already occupied before the arrival of the Greeks. Since there is no trace of a violent destruction of this local habitat, it seems that Greeks and Thracians cohabited on the site, probably for about one century. These findings give us the opportunity to question some passages of ancient greek literature, that tend to present Greek colonists as brutal and not hesitating to chase off local inhabitants by force.”***
In 2014, archaeologists hope to continue excavating the portico and the area around the structure, including an area east of a Hellenistic mansion on the Acropolis, where they believe they have discovered evidence of the fortification wall of the city.
For more information about the excavations and how one can participate and support the project, see the project website. For more specific information about how one can donate to financially support the mission, please go to financing.
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* http://www.argilos.net/inscription-en/
** http://www.argilos.net/histoire-du-site-en/
*** http://www.argilos.net/fouille-en/
Cover Photo, Top Left: Aerial view of excavation area at Argilos. Credit: the Greek-Canadian Archaeological Mission of Argilos
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Since 2011, a team of achaeologists have been uncovering some tantalizing new finds at the remains of a fourteenth century B.C. Egyptian fortress gate complex at the coastal city of Jaffa in Israel. It is today the only Egyptian gate ever excavated in Israel, and excavation co-directors Aaron A. Burke of the University of California, Los Angeles and Martin Peilstöcker of the Israel Antiquities Authority are convinced that the site may tell an important story about how an Egyptian enclave survived and persisted within Canaanite territory well over 3,000 years ago.
“New archaeological data combined with well-known historical texts of the Late Bronze Age are now shedding light on the nature of interactions between the Canaanite inhabitants of Jaffa and its environs and the Egyptian inhabitants of the New Kingdom fortress built atop the city’s earlier remains,” reports Burke and Peilstöcker. “The resulting picture is one colored by episodes of violence and peaceful social interactions in Jaffa over a period of more than 300 years, from ca. 1460 to 1130 BC.”*
Excavations in 2012 revealed strong evidence of a violent destruction event, with clues to its extent indicated when excavators discovered a commemorative scarab of Amenhotep III dated to the mid-fourteenth century B.C., found within the upper destruction layers and apparently fallen from what the archaeologists interpreted as a second story administrative office floor. In 2013, they exposed the city gate’s passageway below more than 1.5 meters of destruction debris. The finds included arrowheads, a spearhead and lead weight, decorative ivory inlays, numerous charred seeds, a number of ceramic vessels, antlers from deer, and nearly two dozen cedar timbers thought to have once made up the gate’s roof and upper story. The seeds, identified as those of barley, olive pits, grape pips, and chick peas were a welcome find, as they provide an insight to the foods consumed at the site.
The assortment of artifacts painted a picture of a city gate that functioned as something more than a purely defensive structure, a complex that housed administrators, storerooms, and other support facilities. Speaking of the antlers, for example, Burke and Peilstöcker noted that they “suggest that the gate was not a stark and utilitarian space as many reconstructions of Egyptian gates suggest. Instead, it would seem that Egyptian soldiers hung these items within the passageway as trophies of their hunting around Jaffa.”**
The timbers, the earliest and largest such ancient timbers from that time period found in Israel to date, are thought to have been used in the construction of the gate’s second story and roof. Reported Burke and Peilstöcker in a recent press release: “They will provide not only important chronological data such as evidence for the date of the construction of the gate complex but also will contribute to refining our understanding of the evolution of Egyptian rule in Canaan since the gate is one in a sequence of gates providing evidence for the earliest Egyptian fortress in Canaan. As important proxies for climate change, the timbers also offer a unique opportunity for an improved study of Late Bronze Age environment.”**
The excavations are part of the The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP), a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Johannes-Gutenberg Universitat, Mainz, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). For more information, visit the project website. A detailed article, entitled The Egyptian Fortress in Jaffa, can be read in the March 2013 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.
The results from the 2013 excavations will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Schools of Oriental Research in Baltimore, MD on November 21, 2013.
Cover Photo, Top Left: Aerial view of the fiery destruction of the Amarna period gate complex. Photo courtesy of Zvi Lederman, Photo 2012-P1027, view to the northeast
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
It seems there is no end these days to what genetics might be telling us about our past. To add to the profusion of new findings are the conclusions of another study that suggest an early human population boom around 60,000 – 80,000 years ago, marking perhaps the first great population expansion of human history, or pre-history, as the case would be.
The prevailing theory is that, as humans transitioned to domesticating plants and animals around 10,000 years ago, they developed a more sedentary lifestyle, leading to settlements, the development of new agricultural techniques, and relatively rapid population expansion from 4-6 million people to 60-70 million by 4,000 B.C.
But hold on, say the authors of a recently completed genetic study. Carla Aimé and her colleagues at Laboratoire Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, University of Paris, conducted a study using 20 different genomic regions and mitochondrial DNA of individuals from 66 African and Eurasian populations, and compared the genetic results with archaeological findings. They concluded that the first big expansion of human populations may be much older than the one associated with the emergence of farming and herding, and that it could date as far back as Paleolithic times, or 60,000-80,000 years ago. The humans who lived during this time period were hunter-gatherers. The authors hypothesize that the early population expansion could be associated with the emergence of new, more sophisticated hunting technologies, as evidenced in some archaeolocal findings. Moreover, they state, environmental changes could possibly have played a role.
The researchers also showed that populations who adopted the farming lifestyle during the Neolithic Period (10,200 – 3,000 B.C.) had experienced the most robust Paleolithic expansions prior to the transition to agriculture. “Human populations could have started to increase in Paleolithic times, and strong Paleolithic expansions in some populations may have ultimately favored their shift toward agriculture during the Neolithic,” said Aimé.
The details of the study have been published in the scientific journal, Molecular Biology and Evolution, by Oxford University Press.
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Source: Adapted and edited from a press release of the journal, Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Cover Photo, Top Left: Part of a DNA double helix. Ude, Wikimedia Commons
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Who would have predicted that conflict and destruction would beget the flowering of large scale ancient complex societies? Intuitively, for most people at least, they don’t seem to mix. But the recent development and testing of a mathematical model seems to support that otherwise unlikely paradigm.
The model was developed by an international team from the University of Connecticut, the University of Exeter in England, and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). By focusing on the interaction of ecology and geography as well as the spread of military innovations, the cultural evolutionary model predicts that selection for social organizations that facilitate cooperation in large groups of genetically unrelated individuals, leading to large-scale complex states, is greater where warfare is more intense. Amazingly, when the model was run as a simulation, it closely matched the actual record of how and when the largest-scale complex societies in the Old World arose in human history.
The model was simulated within a realistic landscape of the Afro-Eurasian landmass during 1,500 BCE to 1,500 CE, and it was able to explain two-thirds of the variations involved in the evolution of large-scale societies. When compared to actual history, for example, it predicted that horse-related military innovations, such as chariots and cavalry, dominated warfare within Afro-Eurasia and that nomads living in the Eurasian Steppe influenced agrarian societies nearby, resulting in the spread of intense warfare beyond the steppe.
“What’s so exciting about this area of research is that instead of just telling stories or describing what occurred, we can now explain general historical patterns with quantitative accuracy,” said the study’s co-author Sergey Gavrilets, who is NIMBioS director for scientific activities. “Explaining historical events helps us better understand the present, and ultimately may help us predict the future.”
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Who would have predicted that conflict and destruction would beget the flowering of large scale ancient complex societies? Intuitively, for most people at least, they don’t seem to mix. But the recent development and testing of a mathematical model seems to support that otherwise unlikely paradigm. The model was developed by an international team from the University of Connecticut, the University of Exeter in England, and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). By focusing on the interaction of ecology and geography as well as the spread of military innovations, the cultural evolutionary model predicts that selection for social organizations that facilitate cooperation in large groups of genetically unrelated individuals, leading to large-scale complex states, is greater where warfare is more intense. (Popular Archaeology)
The skeletonized body of an Etruscan prince, possibly a relative to Tarquinius Priscus, the legendary fifth king of Rome from 616 to 579 B.C., has been brought to light in an extraordinary finding that promises to reveal new insights on one of the ancient world’s most fascinating cultures. PLAY VIDEO An Etruscan house emerges from a hillside in Italy. ROSSELLA LORENZI Found in Tarquinia, a hill town about 50 miles northwest of Rome, famous for its Etruscan art treasures, the 2,600 year old intact burial site came complete with a full array of precious grave goods. (Discovery News)
A dog mummy has revealed the first archaeological evidence of bloodsucking parasites plaguing Fido’s ancestors in Egypt during the classical era of Roman rule. The preserved parasites discovered in the mummified young dog’s right ear and coat include the common brown tick and louse fly — tiny nuisances that may have carried diseases leading to the puppy’s early demise. French archaeologists found the infested dog mummy while studying hundreds of mummified dogs at the excavation site of El Deir in Egypt, during expeditions in 2010 and 2011. (Live Science)
Federal officials along with a southern Idaho Boy Scout troop have started restoration efforts on a section of the Oregon Trail plundered by artifact hunters this summer. Last week, scouts working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management began restoration work on stretches of the historic trail near Burley. (KiviTV.com)
Eating a parboiled rodent whole for the sake of science is dedication. It won scientists Brian D. Crandall and Peter W. Stahl the Ig Nobel prize for Archaeology. ‘Tis the season of red leaves in the north, spring in the south and of the Ig Nobel prizes everywhere. Intrepid member of one group of scientists ate a shrew, thereby teaching mankind a lesson in dedication to the job and winning an award for it, too. (Haaretz)
While we grapple with the impact of climate change, archaeologists suggest we spare a thought for Aboriginal Australians who had to cope with the last ice age. “The period scientists call the Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM for short, is the most significant climatic event ever faced by humans on this continent,” Associate Professor Sean Ulm from James Cook University in Cairns said. (EurekAlert!)
Research by a University of Southampton archaeologist suggests that early humans, who lived thousands of years before Neanderthals, were able to work together in groups to hunt and slaughter animals as large as the prehistoric elephant. (Science Daily)
Archaeologists have dated bones found in the 1990s as the earliest known human remains from northern Britain. Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Nottingham analysed a leg bone found in Cumbria and found it to be more than 10,000 years old. (BBC News)
A team of scientists from the Universities of Cantabria and Burgos in Spain and Toulouse in France have dated prehistoric wall paintings in the Altxerri cave system in the Gipuzkoa province of northern Spain to about 39,000 years BPE, making them among the earliest known cave paintings produced by humans in Europe.
It was in 2011 when Cantabria University members Aitor Ruiz and César González began to explore the upper gallery of the cave, designated Altxerri B, with the objective of coming up with some reliable dates for the less-explored wall paintings in this part of the cave system. These paintings appeared to have been done independently of other paintings found in a lower gallery, paintings already with known dates that fell within the 29,000 – 35,000 BPE range. The paintings in this upper gallery were figurative representations of a bison (the most common element among the Altxerri cave system paintings) a feline, a possible animal’s head, a bear and two groups of three finger marks, as well as other motifs. Ruiz and González also employed the help of Diego Garate, a specialist in Upper Paleolithic cave art from the University of Toulouse, to help them place and interpret the paintings and their findings within the context of current knowledge about Paleolithic art in Europe.
“Archaeological, geological and stylistic evidence, together with radiometric dates, suggest an Aurignacian chronology for this art,” reported the investigators. “The ensemble in Altxerri B can therefore be added to the small but growing number of sites dated in this period, corroborating the hypothesis of more complex and varied figurative art than had been supposed in the early Upper Palaeolithic.”*
The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic (50,000 to 10,000 years ago), common to Europe and southwest Asia. It existed from ca. 45,000 to 35,000 years ago. Although the Altxerri cave system is somewhat less known to the public than other cave systems, such as the Altamira, also in Spain, and Chauvet in France, they are known to feature galleries of prehistoric paintings dated back to similar periods of time, and are still under investigation. They were first discovered in 1956 but archaeologists didn’t begin serious examination and study of the figures and markings in the caves until the early 1960’s. The Altxerri is now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Who were the humans who created these paintings? Were they modern humans or Neanderthals? Thus far there is no evidence linking the paintings to any particular human species.
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
The archaeological excavations being conducted at the site of ancient Gezer in northwestern Israel have recently revealed some tantalizing finds, one of which came as a surprise to excavators who just completed digging there during the summer of 2013.
“In this, the sixth season of excavation,” reports co-directors Steven Ortiz of the Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary and Samuel Wolff of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “one goal was to remove a portion of the city wall built in the Iron IIA period (10th century BCE) in order to investigate a Late Bronze age destruction level (ca. 1400 BCE) that lay below it. To the surprise of the team, in the process of excavating the city wall, an earlier wall system dating to the Iron Age I (1200-1000 BCE) was discovered.”*
The finding is significant in that it could provide possible new additional insight and evidential support for events recorded by the Biblical text relating to the king of Gezer organizing a Canaanite coalition against the Hebrew leader Joshua, and David’s battle with the Philistines where he pursued them “all the way to Gezer”, implying a close relationship between Canaanite Gezer and the Philistines during this period.
Ortiz and Wolff went on to add that the earlier wall “was one meter thick with several rooms attached to it. These rooms were filled [with debris] by a massive destruction, nearly one meter in height, that included Canaanite storage jars, Philistine pottery and other items.”*
Digging further, the excavation team then encountered the anticipated Late Bronze Age destruction level. Among the finds were several pottery vessels, a cache of cylinder seals, and a large Egyptian scarab with the cartouche of Amenhotep III. Ortiz and Wolff suggest that this level constituted the remains of an earlier city destroyed during the Egyptian 18th Dynasty’s rule over the southern part of the Levant. Amenhotep III was the father of the heretic King Akhenaten and also grandfather to Tutankhamun, whose famous tomb and rich trove were discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.
“This destruction corresponds to other destructions of other cities in the region, a reflection of the internecine warfare that was occurring between the Canaanite cities as reflected in the well-known Tell el-Amarna correspondence”, reported the co-directors.*
Historically, Gezer was a major city located along the strategic coastal highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia. According to the Biblical account, Gezer was conquered by an Egyptian pharaoh and later given to Israel’s King Solomon as a wedding gift related to Solomon’s marriage to the pharaoh’s daughter. Solomon is also recorded in the Biblical account to have built walls around Gezer, as he did with Jerusalem, Hazor, and Megiddo, all sites that are currently under excavation. Excavations at Gezer have been regarded as a key to understanding and resolving the debate among Bibilical scholars and archaeologists regarding the appropriate chronology of events and ruling Israelite and Judahite kings. Gezer is also known for its massive ancient water tunnel system, which is also currently under excavation, and the famous so-called “Gezer Calendar”, a 10th-century BCE inscribed limestone tablet discovered in 1908 in excavations there by R.A.S. Macalister. The “calendar” is thought to record monthly or bi-monthly periods related to agricultural practices.
Say Ortiz and Wolff: “The Gezer expedition is slowly stripping away layers of public and domestic structures of the 8th and 9th centuries BCE in order to reveal the 10th century city plan adjacent to the City Gate. This summer the tops of the 10th century walls began to poke out, making the archaeologists optimistic that in future seasons more of the Solomonic city will be exposed.”*
The dating of the Iron Age city gate complex and associated city structures at Gezer has been a part of the ongoing chronology debate.
More information about Gezer and the excavation project, and how one can participate, can be obtained at the project website.
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime find for Israeli archaeologist Amnon Ben-Tor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who also co-directs excavations at the world-renowned site of Hazor in northern Israel. While digging at this ancient Canaanite location during the summer of 2013, he and his excavation team unearthed a surprising find — beautifully carved paws of what was once a complete stone Egyptian sphinx statue. It was discovered near the entrance of the remains of an ancient city palace in a destruction layer dated to the 13th century B.C.
“This is of extreme importance from many points of view,’ said Ben-Tor, “since it is the only sphinx of this king known in the world — even in Egypt. It is also the only monumental piece of Egyptian sculpture found anywhere in the Levant.”
The Levant is the region of the eastern Mediterranean stretching between Anatolia and Egypt. Today it includes the modern states of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Cyprus and parts of southern Turkey. Although many ancient Egyptian finds, including architecture, have been unearthed in archaeological excavations throughout the region, no monumental sculpture attributable to the Egyptians have been recovered in this region outside of Egypt.
Inscribed in hieroglyphic in the stone between the paws of the large fragment was the name of the Egyptian Old Kingdom 4th dynasty pharaoh Menkaure (c. 2500 BC), also known by his Hellenized name as Mykerinos. Menkaure is thought to be the phaaraoh responsible for the construction of the smallest of the three great pyramids at Giza.
The lower (paws) portion of the sphinx found during the 2013 excavations at Tel Hazor. Photo courtesy Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor and Dr. Sharon Zuckerman, Hazor Excavations Project.
What was the sphinx, or at least this portion of it, doing at Hazor?
“Maybe this was a gift which the Egyptian king sent to the local [Canaanite] king of Hazor. Maybe. To prove it? Impossible,” said Ben-Tor.
Historically, Hazor was likely the largest of the ancient Canaanite cities, and for a time was among the largest cities of the Levant. Today, the archaeological remains encompass 200 acres. Its population in the second millennium BC is estimated to have been about 20,000 people, and was strategically located on the route connecting Egypt and Babylon, making it a dominant economic and trading power in the region. Dig co-directors Amnon Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckerman lead the current excavations, which have thus far revealed no less than 21 superimposed cities, including temples, fortifications and a huge water system.
The archaeologists estimate that the complete sphinx was about one meter tall, weighing half a ton. Will they find the rest of it? That’s a goal of the continuing excavations.
Anyone interested in participating in the Hazor excavations may obtain more information about the site and how to apply at http://hazor.huji.ac.il/.
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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of the remains at Hazor. Qasinka, Wikimedia Commons
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Few people know that the Smithsonian Institution curates one of the largest single collections of whole Mesoamerican ceramic artifacts in the world — more than 12,000, to be specific. But most of these objects are tucked away unseen by most people within the storage “vaults” that house all of the other massive museum collections, the largest in the world.
Now, after more than two years of research on the museum’s Central American ceramics collections under the sponsorship of the Smithsonian”s Latino Center, curator Ann McMullen and guest curator Alexander Villa Benitez of George Mason University have selected more than 160 objects from the museum’s vast collection of ancient ceramics from the region, and augmented it with other significant examples of work in gold, jade, copper, marble, shell and stone. The objects represent a rich variety of Central American cultures spanning the period from 1000 B.C. to the present, illustrating the complexity of Mesoamerican civilization in terms of social and trade networks, technology, artwork and systems of status and political organization. Under the rubric, Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed, they are now shared in a public exhibition that examines seven regions representing distinct Central American cultural areas that are today part of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
“This is our first major exhibition that examines our remarkable Central American collection, which is world class based on its sheer size and the fact that these are whole and intact objects,” said Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. “It also marks the first time that we have created a bilingual exhibition that will increase our scholarship and outreach to an entirely new audience.”
The exhibition is accompanied by an interactive website that includes 3-D images of select objects and a landmark publication, Revealing Ancestral Central America, edited by Rosemary A. Joyce.
The exhibition will be open through Feb. 1, 2015, in the third level W. Richard West Jr. Contemporary Arts Gallery at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
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Source: Adapted and edited from a press release.
Cover Photo, Top Left: View of the National Museum of the American Indian. Abraham OFM, Wikimedia Commons
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
At first blush, there is nothing that stands out to any common visitor about the appearance of Tel Kabri, today an archaeological site that was once a thriving Canaanite center over 3,500 years ago. Located next to its namesake kibbutz in the western Galilee region of Israel, it is only one of a profusion of sites currently under excavation in this part of the Middle East. But ask the archaeologists and those who know something about the site, and you will get a different picture.
First, they might tell you that, unlike other ancient Canaanite sites, it is the only one that features remains from a Middle Bronze Age (the 2100 – 1500 BC time period) palatial complex largely undisturbed or obliterated by later construction from subsequent occupying cultures. This means that the palace discovered at the site (dated to the 18th century BCE), is also the only Canaanite palace of this period that can be fully excavated.
Second, it is the only Canaanite center that features remains from Minoan (or Aegean)-style wall frescoes and floor painting. Excavations conducted by [Aharon] Kempinski and [Wolf-Dietrich] Niemeier from 1986 to 1993 uncovered an Aegean-style painted plaster floor and numerous fragments that they suggested originally composed a miniature Aegean-style wall fresco. Only three other archaeological sites in the Middle East are known to have yielded Aegean-style frescoes and painting: Tell el-Dab’a in Egypt, Qatna in Syria and Alalakh in Turkey. The Tel Kabri fresoes and painting are, however, the only evidence of Minoan or Cycladic-style artwork in present-day Israel (or among the ancient Canaanites). And new excavations begun in 2005 under the direction of Eric Cline of George Washington University and Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa have added to the discovery. During excavations in 2008 and 2009, they found more than 100 new fragments of wall and floor plaster, approximately 60 of which were painted and, according to their analysis, likely originally belonged to a second Aegean-style wall fresco with figural representations and a second Aegean-style painted floor.
Above and below: Painted plaster fragments discovered during the excavations of 2008 and 2009. Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavation Project, Eric H. Cline, and Nurith Goshen.
And now, their latest season of excavations, completed during the summer of 2013, has yielded more fragments of painted wall plaster. “Of these,” write Yasur-Landau and Cline, et al. in their preliminary report, “one has red paint and an incised string line; another awaits detailed analysis, but may have either a small bird or a fragment of vegetation.”* (See photo, right)
Incised string lines within painted plaster is known to be a distinctive characteristic of Minoan-style art. Says Cline, “the Minoans took a string and just tightened it so that it contacted the wet plaster and created a perfectly straight line. We have plaster at Kabri that shows that. The other thing they did was take string and dip it in, for example, red paint, and tighten it quickly against the plaster. The red paint thus makes a perfectly straight line…….That is a Minoan technique”.**
What was Minoan-style artwork doing at Kabri? Cline and his colleagues hope to one day have the answers as they continue to excavate the site. In any case, it is possibly the earliest-known Western style art found in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Equally, if not more significant, has been the recent discovery of a palatial multi-room storage complex containing nearly 40 large restorable Canaanite storage jars in a fully excavated room of the complex. The finds were made while they were digging an area adjacent to and west of a monumental building first excavated in 2011, a one-of-kind structure that was lined with precisely-shaped orthostat blocks. “This is the largest concentration to date of restorable pottery found anywhere in the palace of Kabri and the only place on site where we have found an entire room still full of artifacts,” writes Yasur-Landau and colleagues in their preliminary report. Moreover, they add that it is “the first time that such a storeroom with jars still present has been uncovered within an MB (Middle Bronze Age) palace in Canaan…….Samples for residue analysis were taken from almost all of the vessels; we are currently awaiting the results.”* The remains of six additional storage jars were found in an adjoining room just south of the room. This room has only been partially excavated and potentially may contain an additional concentration of restorable vessels. Analysis of the positioning of the jar remains in the rooms has led archaeologists to conclude that the jars were not used after they were last deposited, raising questions as to what led to their relatively sudden abandonment.
An amazing find: The remains of the restorable storage vessels, still in situ in the northern storage room, undisturbed and unused since they were last deposited or fell into place over 3,500 years ago. Courtesy Eric H. Cline and the Tel Kabri Excavation Project.
The team also continued excavations within the palace, parts of which were exposed in previous seasons. The latest efforts revealed “an architectural continuum of ca. 75m in length within the palace”, including plaster floors and more fragments of restorable pottery.* Combined with what they already knew about the features and spatial layout of the palace, archaeologists are now concluding that “the projected extent of the palace may be between 5,000 and 6,000 square meters”.* The Tel Kabri structure is considered to be among the largest Canaanite palaces ever found.
Researchers are now looking forward to the results of LiDAR1 laser scans and the analysis of organic residue found in the pottery. Ultimately, the researchers hope the Tel Kabri excavations and research will offer what might be the most complete picture of palatial political, social and economic life in the Canaanite period, answering questions such as whether or not the Canaanites had a central government, whether taxes were levied, the type of agriculture practiced, and the trade networks operating during the time.
Aerial view of the excavated area of Tel Kabri as it appears today. Note the excavators lying prone face-up on the ground, spelling out “Kabri”. Courtesy SkyView Photography, Ltd.
“Kabri is like no other site I have ever investigated,” said Cline, “because it is so huge and because it was only occupied during the Middle Bronze Age [about 2100 – 1500 BC], with a puzzling absence of occupation and then suddenly an Iron Age [about 1200 – 500 BC] presence on the acropolis.”**
None of the causal factors that would explain this abandonment and long absence seem to be here, thus far. No clear signs of a massive fiery destruction from an invading army. No evidence of a natural disaster.
What happened here so long ago?
The answer may lie ahead — or not. In any case, as any seasoned archaeologist would likely say, there are often many other equally exciting surprises along the way.
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The excavation project, conducted every other year (the next will occur in the summer of 2015) invites participation by students and volunteers from all over the world. For more information about Tel Kabri, see thewebsite. Readers can download the latest detailed preliminary report of the excavationshere.
** From an interview with Eric Cline as published inThe Minoan Connection in the June 2011 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.
[1] LiDAR: (Laser Interferometry Detection and Ranging) — a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. The data can be used to generate precise, three-dimensional information about a site and its features.
All images not otherwise posted are courtesy Eric H. Cline and the Tel Kabri Excavation Project.
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Like cemeteries, old homes, and sunken ships, even museums may not be beyond the domain of investigators who specialize in detecting and documenting paranormal activity, experiences or events that lie outside the range of normal experience or rational explanation. After all, museums, sometimes called “the Nation’s attics”, contain artifacts that could date anywhere from several millions of years BP to recent history, and it seems, at least based on the literature of recorded events, ghosts and such like to hang out around things old or dead. (Popular Archaeology)
An international team of researchers led by Oxford University has new dating evidence indicating when the earliest fully modern humans arrived in the Near East, the region known as the Middle East today. They have obtained the radiocarbon dates of marine shell beads found at Ksar Akil, a key archaeological site in Lebanon, which allowed them to calculate that the oldest human fossil from the same sequence of archaeological layers is 42,400–41,700 years old. This is significant because the age of the earliest fossils, directly and indirectly dated, of modern humans found in Europe is roughly similar. (phys.org)
You can’t always tell a book by its cover, as the saying goes. Scientists are now discovering that the same principle applies to ancient cities that have been shrouded for centuries beneath jungle canopies. And Angkor, the famous capital of southeast Asia’s largest ancient empire and thought by many to have already long revealed its secrets, is apparently no exception. (Popular Archaeology)
Two dozen Maya war captives were beheaded, dismembered, and buried unceremoniously some 1,400 years ago at the site of Uxul, an international team reported on Tuesday. The victims were likely rulers of nearby towns at war with Uxul, located in southern Mexico, or the dethroned rulers of the town itself, according to the researchers. The discovery of the mass burial in an artificial cave adds to the evidence that the brutal warfare, torture, and sacrifice of captives widely depicted in ancient Maya artwork were real practices, says discovery team archaeologist Nicolaus Seefeld of Germany’s University of Bonn. (National Geographic)
Evidence from past research has suggested that, sometime during the period between 130,000 and 100,000 years ago, the Sahara desert region we know today was wetter, featuring rivers and lakes, providing an environment that many scientists theorize permitted the earliest modern humans to migrate northward from points southward in Africa toward the Mediterranean coastline and areas eastward into the Levant. (Popular Archaeology)
El Pilar. The name means “watering basin”, reflecting its rich water resources. Spread across the border between western Belize and northeastern Guatemala, this ancient Maya city center is considered the largest site in the Belize River region, boasting over 25 known plazas and hundreds of other structures, covering an area of about 120 acres. Monumental construction at El Pilar began in the Middle Preclassic period, around 800 BCE, and at its height centuries later it harbored more than 20,000 people. (Popular Archaeology)
A Sarmatian burial mound excavated this summer in Russia’s Southern Ural steppes has yielded a magnificent but unusual treasure. The artefacts contained within the mound are helping to shed light on a little-known period of the nomadic culture that flourished on the Eurasian steppe in the 1st millennium BC. The archaeological study of this remarkable ancient tomb, or kurgan, was carried out by the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology (Russian Academy of Sciences), led by Professor Leonid T. Yablonsky. (Past Horizons)
It was like looking at wood planks and timbers that were cut from their trees and shaped just a few decades ago. But these pieces were thousands of years old. About 4,500 years old, in fact. With a sense of urgency, a team donned in special white hazmat-like suites, gloves and face-masks, like surgeons, swiftly yet methodically removed, handled and examined scores of carefully and artfully cut pieces of wood. (Popular Archaeology)
Real-life vampires, ancient sites to rival those of Greece and Rome – Bulgaria’s archaeologists are putting their country on the map of world history, but first they have to stop the mafia stealing its treasures. The illegal diggers come at night with shovels and sacks, hunting through the places where they know the professionals have been. They’re looking for the tonnes of ancient artefacts that lie hidden in Bulgaria’s soil. (The Independent)
The emergence of modern humans in South and East Asia has long been a topic of heated debate among scholars. Nonetheless, many scientists today have generally reached a consensus that the initial foray of anatomically modern humans out of Africa reached the Levant (Middle East) during improved climate conditions within what is called Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5), or the time range between about 85,000 years ago and 130,000 years ago. However, this original thrust of human migrants is generally considered to have “failed”, in that little or no evidence has been recovered to indicate that they advanced any further beyond the Levant for a large gap of time afterwards. The massive eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia during that time period is thought to have played a significant role in this. The resulting global “volcanic winter” caused by the blast, in combination with a more general global climate cooling period, essentially helped to create conditions hostile to prospects for humans venturing much beyond their African homeland for an extended period of time. The fossil, archaeological and genetic findings appear to support a consensus view that another, single population of modern humans exited Africa sometime later, around 60,000 years ago, and rapidly reached Australia by about 40 – 50,000 years ago by following an Indian Ocean coastal route. Some genetic studies have supported this scenario.
But not so fast, says Michael Petraglia, Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Human Evolution and Prehistory at the University of Oxford. He and his colleagues have conducted new excavations and earth core sampling in India that have cast a new light on the debate. Their studies have assigned a reliable date for the Toba eruption at approximately 75,000 years agousing the latest Argon-Argon dating techniques and, more significantly, even suggest that the “bottleneck” in human evolution — the near extinction resulting from dramatic ecological changes from the Toba eruption — likely did not happen. According to their analysis, the effects of the eruption were not as severe, and the ensuing decimation of the prehistoric human population was not as pronounced, as previously thought. Their recovery and examination of Middle Palaeolithic core and flake stone tools in the Jurreru River Valley of southern India and the Son River Valley in the north, including other geologic, flora and fauna evidence indicate, they maintain, a basic population continuity after the Toba eruption and an environment not radically different than the one before.
“We found the very first evidence for archaeological assemblages in association with the Toba ash”, says Petraglia. “We found Middle Palaeolithic assemblages below and above the ash indicating the technologies being used at the time of the event. When the stone tool assemblages were analyzed from contexts above and below the ash, we found that they were very similar……..We therefore concluded that the Middle Palaeolithic hominins survived the eruption and there was population continuity. This is not what would have been expected based on general theories that the Toba super-eruption decimated populations.”
Moreover, similar findings published by Christine Lane, et al. in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the result of research at Lake Malawi in East Africa, have led to the supporting conclusion that “the eruption did not significantly impact the climate of East Africa and was not the cause of a human genetic bottleneck at that time”.*
Even more significant, although not without challenge, has been Petragia’s recovery of pre-Toba (before 75,000 years ago) Middle Palaeolithic stone artifacts in India that he suggests exhibit Middle Stone Age (280,000 – 50,000 years ago) industry characteristics found in Africa. These Middle Stone Age artifacts in Africa have, by general consensus, been connected to early anatomically modern humans. Thus from Petraglia’s perspective, the Indian Middle Palaeolithic humans could have been Homo sapiens, and not some earlier human species, as other scholars have suggested. In other words, anatomically modern humans may have exited Africa far earlier than previously thought.
“Archaeological excavations at Jwalapuram, in the Jurreru Valley of southern India,” writes Petraglia and colleagues, “demonstrate that Middle Palaeolithic hominins were present by c. 78 ka. Analysis of cores from the Jwalapuram localities indicates affinities with sub-Saharan African MSA assemblages produced by H. sapiens (modern humans)…….. While lithic technology does not provide a straightforward or definitive signature of modern human presence, in this case it does appear to necessitate that we consider the possibility that H. sapiens was present in South Asia by MIS 5a [about 85,000 years ago], if not earlier.”**
Petraglia admits that his suggestion is not the majority view, but insists that the jury is still very much out on any definitive scenario for human dispersal and evolution related to the African exit and habitation of South and East Asia, which would include India.
“What we can agree on,” he says, “is that little research in these key geographic regions has been conducted, and much more evidence needs to be collected to support or refute the different theories.”
* Christine S. Lane, Ben T. Chorn, Thomas C. Johnson, Ash from the Toba supereruption in Lake Malawi shows no volcanic winter in East Africa at 75 ka, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 110, No. 20, June 21, 2013.
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Like cemeteries, old homes, and sunken ships, even museums may not be beyond the domain of investigators who specialize in detecting and documenting paranormal activity, experiences or events that lie outside the range of normal experience or rational explanation. After all, museums, sometimes called “the Nation’s attics”, contain artifacts that could date anywhere from several millions of years BP to recent history, and it seems, at least based on the literature of recorded events, ghosts and such like to hang out around things old or dead.
Now, a group of investigators with the North Carolina Paranormal Research Society will be conducting an investigation at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, North Carolina Saturday evening, Sept. 21. The research team has gained local attention for its video footage of a door at the local Camden County jail that mysteriously closes.
Mark Anderson with N.C. Paranormal Research contacted the museum after learning about stories of reported paranormal activities in and around it. Regional Museum Director Bill McCrea met with Anderson and later with the museum staff to learn more about the reported sightings.
“Many buildings in North Carolina have been studied for paranormal activity, including the historic State Capitol in Raleigh.” said McCrea. “It might be interesting to see if there is any evidence to support local lore,” he added.
With security provided by an off-duty security guard and a museum staff member, the team will use a variety of techniques to see if any paranormal activity can be recorded. In addition to digital cameras, the team will use digital voice recorders and electromagnetic field recorders.
Anderson is looking forward to the evening of field work. “We appreciate the opportunity to record at the museum and hope we can add to the body of evidence on paranormal activity,” he said.
But it might have been better timed if they had arranged the investigation for the evening of October 31.
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
You can’t always tell a book by its cover, as the saying goes. Scientists are now discovering that the same principle applies to ancient cities that have been shrouded for centuries beneath jungle canopies. And Angkor, the famous capital of southeast Asia’s largest ancient empire and thought by many to have already long revealed its secrets, is apparently no exception.
Led by archaeologist Damian Evans of the University of Sydney, Australia, a research team has visually peeled away the forest and other vegetation covering the landscape of Angkor Wat in northwestern Cambodia by using a new set of eyes — a state-of-the-art technology known as LiDAR (Laser Interferometry Detection and Ranging) — a system that uses laser pulses from an airborn platform, such as a helicopter, to reveal what the earth’s surface looks like below heavily forested areas. What they found was staggering.
“We found that this nicely formally planned grid extends for 35 square kilometers, rather than the 9 kilometers that had previously been mapped from the ground,” he said. “Angkor has been considered to be (among the) cities enclosed by moats or walls, but we found that the town area of the city grids extends far beyond the moat spaces.”
And for the first time, using LiDAR, archaeologists were able to create a map of Angkor’s hidden streets. They also found something unexpected — a series of features which appeared to be embankments at a level of 10 to 15 meters high, layed out in a spiral pattern. Each bank measured a meter in height. “We are not sure what they are,” Evans said.
But it was not just the size of the city that has amazed researchers. This was a city designed with a plan. The streets ran in a grid exactly east/west or north/south. Each city block was measured exactly 100 meters by 100 meters, with 4 dwellings and 4 rectangular ponds, each pond located north-east of each dwelling. The dwellings, elevated on earthen mounds, were higher than the surrounding rice fields, presumably so they wouldn’t flood during the rainy season. The roads were likewise elevated.
Perhaps the biggest take-away is the implication that Angkor contained a larger population than previously thought. The newly discovered urban landscape extended for 35 square kilometers, capable of supporting a population of 750,000 to a million inhabitants, according to the new analysis. “Angkor was a city the size of New York and that’s impressive in the ninth century,” said Francisco Goncalves. Goncalves is president of McElhanney Indonesia, the company that adapted the LiDAR system for the research project.
The finding has shed additional light on the latest thinking about how Angkor met its end. Scholars now theorize that as the city’s population grew, it became increasingly more difficult for the surrounding agriculture to support the urban population. “You would have had a very large population that was not devoted to producing rice,” said Evans. “So they relied on consistent yields of the agricultural hinterland.” According to Michael Coe, a world-renowned archaeologist who authored a book about Angkor, a large population may have also been responsible for the decision to move the Khmer capital to another area in the 14th century. “They overused the land and probably caused a great amount of erosion, clogged up the canals and the whole irrigation system would have collapsed,” he said. This is the result, he maintained, “when populations grow beyond the agricultural capacity of the land.”
Cover Photo, Top Left: View of Angkor Wat. David Sim, Wikimedia Commons
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Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
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It was like looking at wood planks and timbers that were cut from their trees and shaped just a few decades ago. But these pieces were thousands of years old. About 4,500 years old, in fact.
With a sense of urgency, a team donned in special white hazmat-like suites, gloves and face-masks, like surgeons, swiftly yet methodically removed, handled and examined scores of carefully and artfully cut pieces of wood. They were priceless, because these specimens were as old as the pyramids of Egypt and they were in danger of beginning to disappear before their excavator’s eyes, like phantoms, if they weren’t handled and processed appropriately. These were parts of Pharaoh Khufu’s solar funerary vessel, anciently disassembled and packed meticulously into a stone pit grave beneath the sand at the foot of Khufu’s great pyramid over 4,500 years ago. Khufu was ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom pharaoh at that time, or WAS before this boat was buried. But in 1987 the seal of the entombed boat had been breached and water, insects and fungi began to degrade the ancient, vulnerable wood. Severe damage had occurred as a result to some parts of the wood, and scientists found themselves in a race against time to recover the vessel before the outside world did more damage.
Above and below: Archaeologists carefully handle one of the first pieces of the 4,500 year old solar boat. The wood from the boat, while degraded severely in some areas, is still quite well preserved. Because of the desert climate, archaeologists have a much easier time preserving the boat than if it had been found in a more humid climate. Photo by Leyland Cecco/Transterra Media
The find is currently touted to be among the greatest discoveries and excavation projects in Egypt’s long history of archaeological research. Like it’s sister boat excavated and assembled decades ago and now housed in the “Solar Boat Museum” adjacent to the Great Pyramid of Khufu on the Giza Plateau, this was a boat type known as a “solar barge“, a ritual vessel designed to carry the resurrected pharaoh with the sun god Ra across the heavens in the afterlife. It may never have touched water in real life, but this is a matter of further research.
With the help of a Japanese scientific team and technical experts from Japan’s Waseda University and the Japanese Institute for Restoration Research, members of the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities and other Egyptian antiquities experts hope to be able to study and preserve, as well as completely assemble, the ancient bark. Apart from the sensational remains themselves, the boat, the Egyptian authorities anticipate, promises to provide another window on Old Kingdom Egypt, not just for scholars and historians, but for throngs of fascinated citizens and tourists, as well.
“The boat is a spectacular piece of engineering and building, and also provides insight into technology, trade, and aesthetics” effuses Salima Ikram, head of the Egyptology Unit at the famed American University in Cairo. “It is truly amazing to think that King Khufu actually might have travelled on this boat, after having ordered it to be made from cedar logs brought all the way from what is modern day Lebanon.”
Eventually, Egyptian authorities hope that future vistors will see a fully assembled boat housed and displayed on the Giza Plateau. The first solar boat, which has drawn countless tourists for many years, will be moved to the new Egyptian Museum.
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Evidence from past research has suggested that, sometime during the period between 130,000 and 100,000 years ago, the Sahara desert region we know today was wetter, featuring rivers and lakes, providing an environment that many scientists theorize permitted the earliest modern humans to migrate northward from points southward in Africa toward the Mediterranean coastline and areas eastward into the Levant.
Now, for the first time, a team of researchers led by UK scientist Tom J. Coulthard of the University of Hull, United Kingdom, has simulated the existence and fluctuation of ancient water systems across this region, rivers and wetlands with traces that still likely lie beneath sand dunes today. They used a state-of-the-art Earth System Model (ESM) to simulate the Eemian period climate (the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago and ended about 114,000 years ago) to drive a model that reconstructed past rivers and flood events across 12,000,000 square kilometersof North Africa, in the Sahara Desert region. This in turn predicted the presence of distinct river corridors and wetlands throughout the region during this time, “green corridors” that could have been used by early modern humans to migrate northward from their original southern homelands in Africa to jump-off locations for colonizing the globe at least 100,000 years ago.
“Previous spatial analysis of the regional topography has shown there are major watersheds that are dry today but which would drain north from these [the Ahaggar and Tibesti ranges in the south] mountains towards the Mediterranean,” says Coulthard, et. al. “Satellite imagery reveals traces of major river channels linked to these watersheds, now partially buried under sand dune deposits.” It “provides the first strong quantitative evidence for the presence of three major river systems flowing across the Sahara during MIS 5e [Marine Isotope Stage 5e, or 130,000 years ago]”.*
“Whilst we cannot state for certain that humans migrated alongside these rivers, the shape of the drainage systems indicate that anyone moving from south to north from a 2,000 km wide region in the mountains would be funnelled into three clear routes,” the researchers continue.*
Those south-to-north river systems are the “Sahabi” and “Kufrah” in the east towards Egypt and the Levant, and the “Irharhar” much farther to the west. They note that, despite the western-most location, the Irharhar river corridor could have been the most suitable corridor for dispersal of humans beyond the Sahara during this time, as the Irharhar connects two comparatively more humid climates, the monsoonal Ahaggar and Tibesti region to a North Western Mediterranean zone that received significant rainfall in the winter. They further support this by pointing to the greater abundance of archaeological evidence found in this area dated to the time range.
“In contrast, the eastern region has a surprising lack of archaeological evidence despite the extensive simulated palaeo-river courses,” they add. “It is likely that further surveys in this area will provide substantial evidence of Middle Stone Age activity, especially in the areas of buried palaeochannels. However, continued absence of this critical evidence of human migration would confirm our suggestion that a key factor in the western distribution of sites was the attractiveness of the richer Mediterranean-type environments of the Maghreb, which would have promoted permanent settlement in the region and further transit in both directions along the Irharhar river corridor.”
Previous studies have shown that people travelled across the Saharan mountains toward more fertile Mediterranean regions, but when, where and how they did so has been debatable among scholars. Current hypotheses suggest a single trans-Saharan migration, many migrations along one route, or multiple migrations along several different routes. Much more research needs to take place before a consensus model can be constructed.
But this study has shed new light on the debate.
“It’s exciting to think that 100,000 years ago there were three huge rivers forcing their way across 1,000 km of the Sahara desert to the Mediterranean — and that our ancestors could have walked alongside them,” said Coulthard.
The study has been published in detail at PLOS One, the open-access scientific journal.
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* Coulthard TJ, Ramirez JA, Barton N, Rogerson M, Bru ̈ cher T (2013) Were Rivers Flowing across the Sahara During the Last Interglacial? Implications for Human Migration through Africa. PLoS ONE 8(9): e74834. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074834
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Anabel Ford is dedicated to decoding the ancient Maya landscape. While living in Guatemala in 1978, she learned from local people that the Maya forest was an edible garden when she mapped a 30-km transect between the Petén sites of Tikal and Yaxhá. In 1983, she discovered and later mapped the Maya city El Pilar. In 1993, after settlement survey and excavations, she launched a multidisciplinary program to understand the culture and nature of El Pilar. Ford’s publications are cited nationally and internationally as part of the foundation of Maya settlement pattern studies. Her archaeological themes are diverse, appearing in geological, ethnobiological, geographical, and botanical arenas and locally in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. Her concern for management of cultural monuments, in-situ conservation, and tourism appear in Getty publications.
El Pilar. The name means “watering basin”, reflecting its rich water resources. Spread across the border between western Belize and northeastern Guatemala, this ancient Maya city center is considered the largest site in the Belize River region, boasting over 25 known plazas and hundreds of other structures, covering an area of about 120 acres. Monumental construction at El Pilar began in the Middle Preclassic period, around 800 BCE, and at its height centuries later it harbored more than 20,000 people.
It thus may come as a surprise for many visitors when they actually see the site. Its immensity belies the view — for this city, unlike many of its well-known counterparts in Belize and Guatemala — sites like Tikal and Caracol — remains mostly cloaked in its dense tropical shroud. With the exception of a fully exposed Maya house structure, pyramidal temples appear as hills covered with vegetation and trees, ball courts are still disguised like natural extensions of the jungle landscape, and elite residential buildings are detectable only as mere rises beneath the forest canopy. But this is not because archaeologists have not had the opportunity to excavate the site like they have at the famous tourist-draws of Tikal or Caracol. It is actually by design.
At El Pilar, conservation is foremost, and the concept, known as “Archaeology Under the Canopy” says that the monuments are best protected beneath the forest foliage. The objective is thus to selectively and partially expose only strategic areas, features that would visually demonstrate essential knowledge about the site. In addition, in keeping with the focus at El Pilar on researching Maya lifeways (as opposed to the lives and remains of rulers and elites), the site is both an open-air laboratory and showcase for learning about and demonstrating the traditional Maya agricultural practice of forest gardening, a methodology for sustainability thought to be a key to the prosperity and florescence of the Maya civilization.
Now, consistent with its pioneering place in Maya studies, El Pilar has become the focus of a new frontier in Maya archaeology — one that promises to revolutionize the way archaeologists and other specialists approach the discovery process at archaeological sites and areas.
Above and below: Most of the El Pilar structures remain enshrouded in foliage, a natural strategy for conserving its remains. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar Program
Archaeological survey in the verdant tropical Maya forest has presented long-standing challenges to finding undiscovered archaeological sites. The dense foliage and forest canopy have made sure of that. Partly because of this and other research priorities, traditional mapping strategies have involved focused surveys of specific areas, usually around major centers, such as Tikal, and only later in areas outside of centers, such as my work between Tikal and Yaxhá. These settlement data have given us samples of ancient landscapes that can be projected across broader areas, as I have done with GIS (Geographic Information Systems). While traditional survey techniques have provided results in spite of the constraints of the dense forest, new and cutting edge technology, called LiDAR, may be a game-changer for archaeology in tropical areas. LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is a laser-based remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges, or variable distances, to the Earth. It is capable of penetrating overlying vegetation and forest canopies, imaging at very high spatial resolutions with extraordinary accuracy. These light pulses, combined with other data recorded by airborne systems, produce precise points in a three-dimensional space to create a “point cloud” image for mapping. The technique was first applied in Maya archaeological research by University of Central Florida anthropologists Arlen and Diane Chase to produce 3-D maps of Caracol in 2010. In a recent publication of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Chase and others have argued that LiDAR is poised to generate a fundamental shift in Mesoamerican archaeology, potentially transforming research in forested areas worldwide. Using this technology, we can now readily identify structures such as hidden temples and locate them precisely on the landscape with extraordinary spatial precision. Is this the new magic wand? How will archaeologists integrate this new tool? What is its potential for discovery?
The Application of LiDAR at El Pilar
Prior to LiDAR, many of the secrets of ancient Maya settlements remained hidden from view. Now, with LiDAR, large and small structures previously undetected can be made initially visible without traditional surveying, clearing and excavation. Successful identification of built structures from LiDAR, however, depends on the use of robust interpretive algorithms to extract terrain features from the data “point cloud”. In other words, LiDAR results must be decoded to interpret cultural elements, and this is a work in progress. Inspection of the visualization results provides the “targets” for validation. These can be obvious residential compounds, suspected monuments, and more subtle features of small structures, depressions, and quarries. Validation in the field is critical to build the strategies for detecting the cultural features, and we need to look at all types of features, both those we think are positive ancient characteristics, as well as ambiguous or negative elements.
El Pilar is an ideal location for developing a new field study protocol to integrate the LiDAR technology with traditional field survey. We have been working at the site for over 20 years and have mapped the major architecture. Human activities have had little subsequent impact on the Maya forest around the site since the abandonment of the Classic Maya infrastructure around CE 900. Now a binational protected area in Belize and Guatemala, there is a need for an understanding of the cultural remains as part of the management planning process. Thus, the results of our new validation project of the LiDAR imagery will not only develop a comprehensive map of the Maya landscape of El Pilar for research, but will also provide vital input for the adaptive management of the site in Belize and Guatemala.
Exploring Solutions Past ~The Maya Forest Alliance, a conservation and sustainability organization based at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), recently received a gift from Mayaniquel, S.A., a Guatemalan company, of airborne LiDAR imagery covering the entire 20 sq km area of the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve. At the highest resolution of c. 20 laser pulses per sq m, imaged from a helicopter, data were gathered on forest canopy (height and density) and ground surface into an enormous “point cloud” data set that incorporated all of the observations. We have processed the LiDAR data using Terrascan and custom feature extraction software. We have used these images to target potential positive cultural features, questionable elements, as well as negative areas at El Pilar.
What We Have Accomplished
The 2012 two-month season was aimed at building a field validation scheme and a protocol for moving from the LiDAR imagery in the context of the GIS to the field using GPS devices. We focused on a detailed area of c. 2 sq km in the core of the city.
Based on the LiDAR, we prepared targets for the field validations. This included feature classifications as built structures, liner alignments, ambiguous objects, and irregular surfaces. In the field, we assembled coordinates based on the LiDAR features. These coordinates were input into the GPS and used to navigate to the actual targets. Once we arrived at the features, we verified their qualities, confirming Maya structures with sketch maps. Nehanda Higinio, a Belizean environmental studies student working with the El Pilar program in Belize, participated in the field work to identify the actual ground features detected by LiDAR. Below, she briefly describes her experience.
Using the GPS tracking system to find locations identified with LiDAR technology, we marked and recorded the different points that were house platforms and limestone quarries, places that the Maya mined for building stone. The slopes were as many as the land snail shells that lay scattered about among pieces of ancient Maya pottery and the fallen leaves from Allspice, Corozol, Ramon and Copal trees………It was like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. We looked at our LiDAR map then walked to the actual physical location using a GPS tracking device. When we got to each point we looked at our LiDAR map to see if what we thought we saw on the map was what we could actually see in real life. We had to also collect notes to describe the area’s density of rainforest and the trees there were identified by Master Forest Gardener Torres. This helped in confirming the data from the LiDAR map.
Pictured above is a large limestone quarry found and verified through this process. Below, ancient houses are found among the trees. (Photos courtesy BRASS/El Pilar Program)
Existing site maps from the field have provided visual correlates of human constructions visible in the LiDAR imagery based on our enhanced GIS visualizations. Unusual complexes have already been detected: a “citadel”-like construction to the east of the main monuments of El Pilar, and a sunken plaza that appears to link the offset causeways. Neither of these features had been recorded before. These discoveries change our understanding of ancient Maya land use and the city of El Pilar, but features like these could only have been proven on the ground with the field validation.
Detail closeup view of the newly discovered citadel feature detected east of the main temples of El Pilar. Citadel is on the right. It was confirmed in the field. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar
In the context of our expanding UCSB Maya Forest GIS, the work with the new El Pilar LiDAR data will create an essential base for the site-specific scale research that will enhance our accumulating GIS layers of air photographs, soil studies, plant identification, archaeological surveys, and excavation data. We have already extracted a complete topographic map of El Pilar and have been able to re-register earlier and less accurate observation data stored in our Maya forest GIS. We can also image cross-sections of the landscape to better understand the relationship of the ground and forest.
Point cloud view of El Pilar looking south. Green is the forest canopy and darker area is the ground surface. Note the cultural feature of major acropolis on the left. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar Program
We now are in the process of developing and analyzing the data. While it may well take the four years it took researchers Bob Carr and Jim Hazard to map Tikal many years ago, our goal in using LiDAR is to not only map El Pilar, but to devise a reliable and repeatable field strategy protocol for the verification of the elements of the imagery for archaeology generally. The amazing preliminary results that are visible with the El Pilar LiDAR speak to the alluded revolution. But the work only begins with the initial and remote GIS processing of the LIDAR data. Without the ground truth inspection and the feedback to refine and adjust the GIS feature extraction algorithms, we would not have confidence in the mapping results.
The ultimate objective will be a GIS and field protocol that will help other archaeologists working with such imagery to discern the nature of their landscapes. With improved and validated LiDAR results, we will build a foundation for understanding the LiDAR imagery and ancient Maya land use. Field validated through the use of traditional archaeological field methods, LiDAR will be the basis for developing and refining new archaeological research mapping methods and for contributing to cultural resource management.
Popular Archaeology’s annualDiscovery edition 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.
Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email populararchaeology@gmail.com and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.
Compelling stories dramatize and humanize major events and characters in the history of Ephesus, the ruins of which are a popular destination for tourists in present-day Turkey.Historium Press, 2023.Available from Amazon and other online booksellers.
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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.
