During the summer of 2014, archaeologists will be investigating the remains of a 900-year-old Native American ceremonial center site located in Illinois. Known as Emerald Mound in Lebanon, IL, about 25 miles east of the Cahokia mounds, the site is thought to be culturally associated with the well-known Cahokia mounds of the Pre-Columbian Mississipian culture, an advanced society that spread across the present-day Southeastern United States centuries before European contact. (Popular Archaeology)
Archaeologists at IT Sligo have found bones of a Stone Age child and an adult in a tiny cave high on Knocknarea mountain near the town. Radiocarbon dating has shown that they are some 5,500 years old, which makes them among the earliest human bones found in the county. The find represents important fresh evidence of Knocknarea’s Neolithic (Stone Age) links and a prehistoric practice known as “excarnation”. Researchers discovered a total of 13 small bones and bone fragments in an almost inaccessible cave last November. (Irish Mirror)
Another page may be added to St. Augustine’s historical legacy this spring once archaeologists explore an uncharted area of the nation’s oldest colony. Archaeologists start their dig at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in a week. The site is regularly excavated by researchers who piece together the lives of America’s earliest Spanish settlers and the Native Americans who lived nearby. (The Saint Augustine Record)
Excavators working in the city of Cusco have discovered a burial site containing five individuals from the Marcavalle culture, a pre-Inca society. Andina news agency reports that the skeletal remains date back to around 1,000 BC. The burial site, which contained two double graves and one single grave, was found on land owned by a Cusco center for juvenile rehabilitation. Three of the individuals found at the site were adults at the time of their deaths, while one was a child and the other an adolescent. (Peru this Week)
A DOG walker took a step back in time during his routine stroll, finding footprints thought to be 7,000 years old. Archaeologist Barry Mead was walking his dog Peedie on the beach near his Cresswell home when he came across a newly-exposed inter-tidal peat bed. The find, at the southern end of Druridge Bay, included footprints dating back thousands of years, which are the first of their kind to be found at that part of the beach. (Morpeth Herald)
The bony discovery of 50 young male skeletons, decapitated and lumped in an old quarry pit before being found by diggers on an Olympic relief road in Weymouth five years ago, became an even more gripping story following scientific examinations revealing that this mass grave carried executed Vikings. David Score, of excavators Oxford Archaeology, called the test results “thrilling”, while Angus Campbell, the then-leader of Dorset County Council who is now the county’s Lord Lieutenant, admitted organisers “never would have dreamed of finding a Viking war grave.” (Culture24)
Vintage Gouda may be aged for five years, some cheddar for a decade. They’re both under-ripe youngsters compared with yellowish clumps – found on the necks and chests of Chinese mummies – now revealed to be the world’s oldest cheese. The Chinese cheese dates back as early as 1615 BC, making it by far the most ancient ever discovered. Thanks to the quick decay of most dairy products, there isn’t even a runner-up. (USA Today)
Rare, prehistoric rock art which could be more than 4,000 years old has been discovered in the Brecon Beacons. The Bronze Age discovery was made late last year by national park geologist Alan Bowring. Experts claim the stone probably served as a way marker for farming communities. Similar stones have been found in other parts of Britain but they are thought to be rare in mid Wales. (BBC News)
A statue of the daughter of King Amenhotep III, grandfather of Tutankhamen and ruler of Egypt around 3,350 years ago, has been unearthed by a team of Egyptian and European archaeologists. The statue of Princess Iset was discovered at the temple of her pharaoh father on the western bank of the Nile in the southern city of Luxor, the Egyptian antiquities ministry said on Friday. (Reuters)
During the summer of 2014, archaeologists will be investigating the remains of a 900-year-old Native American ceremonial center site located in Illinois. Known as Emerald Mound in Lebanon, IL, about 25 miles east of the Cahokia mounds, the site is thought to be culturally associated with the well-known Cahokia mounds of the Pre-Columbian Mississipian culture, an advanced society that spread across the present-day Southeastern United States centuries before European contact.
Under the leadership of Timothy R. Pauketat of the University of Illinois and in conjunction with Indiana University, the effort will field crews of researchers and students to excavate a significant portion of what is thought to be a complex consisting of structures and other archaeological features such as houses and storage pits related to a principal 6-meter-high earthen platform. Investigations will also include geophysical exploration and mapping.
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Since their discoveries, the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, those hapless victims of the Mt. Vesuvius eruptions of AD 79, have captured the public’s imagination and have thus commanded the attention of both the academic community and the general public. The recent exhibition at the British Museum that highlighted Pompeii and Herculaneum, coupled with the release of the major motion picture, Pompeii, have popularized the ancient cities all the more. There is, however, another story along the northern slopes of Vesuvius that tells of a people who lived and died on the “other side” of the better-known setting. Archaeologists have recently uncovered evidence of the people who lived and died on what has been termed “the dark side of Vesuvius”, the northern slopes of the volcano and the adjoining ancient territories of Nola and Neapolis. It is a story that may encompass not just the well-known AD 79 eruption, but multiple past eruptions as well. Known as the Apolline Project, teams of archaeologists, other scientists, students and volunteers have been slowly piecing together what remains of the ancient settlements that survived and were dramatically affected by these cataclysms.
The Northern Territories
The fertile landscape around Mount Vesuvius has always made it an idyllic and desirable setting for human occupation. Rich in minerals, rivers, and hot springs, this fertile volcanic landscape is as inviting as it is precarious, yielding a wealth of foodstuffs such as olives, hazelnuts, shellfish, figs, and grapes, to name a few. Archaeologists have now discovered evidence of ancient ploughed fields, orchards, vineyards, and Roman centuriation grids, demonstrating that in antiquity the region was thoroughly exploited through the cultivation of a wide variety of crops, as it is today. Considering this abundance and variety of natural resources, from foodstuffs and fuel to natural building materials, the northern territories of Nola and Neapolis were well placed to become centers of mass industrial activity. Ancient literary sources testify to this; for example, Strabo described the area as “dotted all around with cities, buildings, and plantations, so thoroughly intertwined that it resembles closely a metropolis”. Wine, in particular, was a valuable export for this prosperous region, supporting trade connections as far as Britannia and India. Understanding the exact nature of the communications and exchange processes within this region both before and after AD 79 has become the principal pursuit of the Project, which seeks to understand not only the people who lived during these times, but the nature of the economic and industrial landscape as well.
But the archaeologists face a challenge not uncommon in the field. The region of Campania, which today contains the traces of this area, has been intensively settled and urbanized and as a result, only a small percentage of its vast history has been brought to light. It presents a real obstacle to archaeologists who are attempting to reconstruct an image of the ancient landscape and its settlements. Nevertheless, the accessible sites lying on the northern slope of Vesuvius have provided them with a window with long spans of occupation featuring multiple stages of post-eruption recovery and repopulation that provide clear, rich stratigraphies, allowing for the creation of extended chronologies and timelines.
The Finds at Pollena Trocchia
Key to the efforts on the northern slope has been the discovery of a Roman bath and villa site located in the town of Pollena Trocchia. Since 2005, most of the baths have been unearthed, revealing evidence to suggest that it was part of a larger villa complex now buried underneath an adjacent modern block of flats. The discovery of the volcanic material deposited by the AD 79 eruption indicated that the villa complex, or the baths at least, were built in the years after the eruption. As a result, the insight that the finds have provided in terms of both the inhabitants and their impetus to settle there has been extraordinary. The discovery of a brick stamp imprinted onto a tile lining the bath’s hypocaust, for example, shows the distinct mark of the Domitii brothers, a prosperous family from Rome who produced this stamp between AD 75 and AD 95. This connection with Rome, along with the many lavish finds, suggests that the inhabitants of this site were very affluent and settled there soon after the eruption, perhaps tempted by the fertile earth left by the volcano.
Moreover, the rich data from the site at Pollena Trocchia obtained through charcoal analysis of carbonized plant remains has revealed the exact species of vegetation and offers insight into how they were cultivated to shape the Roman landscape. For example, evidence of chestnut (a known construction timber used by the Romans) suggests that the late antique woodland on the north slope may have been partially and purposefully composed of chestnut trees. In fact, the plethora of woodland that blanketed Mount Vesuvius in Roman times was also required in vast quantities for fueling industries such as pottery-making and iron-smithing. It also played a more domestic role in cooking and in the heating of Roman baths. By identifying evidence of activities that would have incorporated wood, as well as the remains of wood itself, archaeologists and palaeobotanists alike are investigating the transportation and management of ancient forests, and whether the woodland of Vesuvius was enough to satisfy the enormous demand for timber.
The researchers have found that not all archaeological finds, however, are as easily comprehensible. A few years ago, the remains of two children were discovered buried in two small amphorae. Amphorae are large pottery vessels that were usually used for transporting wine and other foodstuffs, but they were also occasionally used for infant burials. Thus far, the tale surrounding these children, possibly twins, remains a mystery.
The occupation of this site may have ended the way it began, with a volcanic eruption. This eruption struck on November 6th, AD 472, the site itself being destroyed by lahars. The lahars were produced by the eruption, creating an atmospheric disturbance that caused severe downpours of rain, which then flowed rapidly down the mountainsides, picking up literally tons of ash and mud on their way. As devastating as this event was, the stratigraphy it left behind has been indispensable to the archaeological research.
Pollena Trocchia is not the only site that has shed light on the area. For example, the grand villa complex at Somma Vesuviana boasts a long and mysterious history, with speculation about its ownership and function. Around the time of its discovery, it was thought to have been owned by the Emperor Augustus himself. Originally a luxurious stately home, the function of the building changed after the AD 79 eruption, and there are strong indications that it might have been an industrial center for the mass production of wine. During excavations by the University of Tokyo, a plethora of Dionysiac imagery and motifs have been found throughout the structure, strongly conveying Dionysus, the Roman God of wine and merriment, as the patron diety. One beautiful, well-preserved, marble statue particularly evokes this: it features the god holding a panther cub, a very rare pose. Due to the size and discoveries made at this site, it is well known within the field of Roman archaeology. It is this scale of attention that Apolline Project researchers hope to achieve for the Pollena excavations. In addition, the Villa of Lauro, also in this region, has had its fair share of archaeological attention. Abandoned after the AD 472 eruption, these Roman baths are thought to have belonged to a larger villa complex, much like those at Pollena Trocchia. Thanks to an extraordinary fresco found in Lancellotti Castle nearby, researchers have deduced that much of this villa was removed to construct the church of San Giovanni del Palco. The Villa of Laura baths are most noted for their decoration. Also known as ‘The Blue Baths’, the walls, flooring, and stone furnishings are studded with bold blue tesserae, shells and other decorative materials. The surviving mosaics depict detailed scenes involving various birds, plant life, and deer hunting.
Combining secondary sources such as maps and literary accounts with results of the actual excavations, the Project has constructed local archaeological maps of the area around Nola and Neapolis, thus giving back to the modern day residents a sense of their history and identity. Project staff have also engaged with local landowners and enthusiasts to give the community an active role in the search for their heritage, a quest that is expected to continue for generations.
For more information on the work of the Apolline Project and how to participate, go to the website at http://www.apollineproject.org/.
Interested readers may also contact the project’s director, Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone at [email protected].
Today there is great silence on the hilltop overlooking the Ansedonia promontory. Here lie the ruins of the ancient Roman town of Cosa. Looking down from this place, one sees the glistening Tyrrenian Sea, whose light breeze caresses the leaves of thousand-year-old olive trees and wafts up the smell of wild flowers. It isn’t easy to imagine how different this sanctuary of peace and meditation was many centuries ago. In fact, in the second century BCE this was a busy place, bustling with activity made possible by slave labor: wine-making, manufacturing amphorae, and wine shipping were its activities. Since before the eighth century BCE, the wine trade had been mainly a Greek and Etruscan business. But after Rome’s 241 BCE conquest of the so-called ‘Granary of Rome’—Sicily — the Romans had the chance to become wine-making entrepreneurs, cultivating a product much more profitable than that of the necessary, but less lucrative, wheat. The Greek wine business was small in comparison with what the Romans had in mind.
As a first step, Rome relocated the production zone to Tuscany from their highly praised vineyards around Naples. Cosa was some 200 miles further north, and had more fertile land, but it couldn’t produce wines that could compete with the full-bodied Falernian and its high alcohol content, which the home market demanded. Nevertheless, coastal Tuscany’s vineyards were deemed a good-enough quality. But above all, its output was enormously greater.
Cosa’s huge vineyards were owned by senatorial families, the most powerful of them being the Sestius family. However, the Sestius estate went well beyond growing grapes; it was a full-cycle organization. In addition to cultivating the vineyards and vinting the wine according to buyers’ tastes, a slave-run factory produced amphorae from local clay. These were then filled with wine, sealed, and transported to a nearby harbour of Etruscan origins—Portus Cosanus—with its new, complex canal system to keep it free of sand. There, hundreds of workers loaded ships with amphorae by the thousands.
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Cosa: South view of harbor. In the background: remains of Roman port. Photo by Ugo Venturoli
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Port of Cosa from above: on the left Roman masonry, at center mouth of one of the Roman drain canals dug to avoid sanding of port. Photo by Ugo Venturoli
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Port of Cosa (Portus Cosanus): on the left the remains of Roman masonry. Photo by Ugo Venturoli
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The Sestius family was not only in business to vint wine and mass-produce amphorae, but to ship that wine to the consumer as well, by sea and by land. It’s not known if they used family owned ships, or simply contracted with maritime enterprises. Amphorae bearing SES on their necks, for SEStius, have been found all over Roman territory. But at least 70 percent of Roman wine from Cosa was bound to ports in what is now southern France. Researchers have calculated that from the beginning of the second to the early decades of the first century BCE, no less than 400,000 amphorae a year were exported to Gaul alone! Romans mainly used the Dressel type1 amphora for shipping by sea. That type had a 25-liter capacity (5 1/2 gallons), which means that, during that century Romans sent Gaul a billion liters of wine (264,172,000 gallons). These imposing numbers are estimates based on the 60 to 80 sunken mercantile wine shipwrecks discovered in the Mediterranean. Their loads are often almost undamaged, so it’s possible to have a precise idea of what this trade was like. The medium-tonnage wine ships weren’t small vessels; they were normally 40 meters or more in length. Each ship could carry up to 3,000 amphorae, piled in layers—a payload of 150 tons. These vessels had been designed purely for coastal navigation. So, when heavily laden, they were unable to withstand open ocean conditions. Their inability to sail safely in heavy seas is evident from the presence of multiple wrecks in relatively confined areas of the sometimes rough Mediterranean Sea, within the windiest reaches. Owing to their round keels and square rigging, they were unfit for sailing into the wind—a serious drawback for northbound ships facing northerly prevailing winds. The poorly suited coastal vessels couldn’t wait for southerly winds that would have enabled a fast broad reach. The south winds, called Vulturnus, occur on average only 4 to 6 days a month. So how did Roman wine get safely and handily across the dangerous Gulf of Lions off Southern France, carrying the incredible quantity of wine the Gauls were craving?
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At center (left lower side covered by the net) Dressel type 1 amphora of Cosa manufacture. Very strong and thick; could be piled up to 5 layers on wine-carriers. Photo by Ugo Venturoli, exhibit at Cosa Museum
Section of Roman shipwreck, showing the Dressel type 1 amphorae load piled in layers. Note the amphorae handles positioned lengthwise to avoid breakage. Photo by Ugo Venturoli, image illustration at Cosa Museum.
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In the decade after 1972 French archaeologists André Tchernia and Patrice Pomey had the opportunity to study the wreck of a previously unknown kind of wine-ship. Discovered in 1967 near Toulon by scuba divers of the Ecole de plongée de la Marine Nationale (National Navy Diving School), this shipwreck yielded a definitive answer regarding Rome’s ability to sail windward in the moderate gale conditions frequent in the Gulf of Lions. Named for its place of discovery, the “wreck of Madrague de Giens” lies beneath about 20 meters of water, and sank between about 75 and 50 BCE. Its 40–45-meter length and 500-ton displacement meant that it could carry 8,000 amphorae, in five layers: a payload of around 400 tons. This shipwreck’s discovery marked a turning point in the study of Roman nautical construction and seamanship. Since windward performance was a prime consideration in the Gulf of Lions, this new kind of ship was not only cleverly designed and sturdily built, but it also boasted design innovations meant specifically for the voyage to Gaul: a deep keel with a centerboard-like action for sailing closer to the wind, two masts with a large artemon sail (dolon) to make tacking easier, and a reverse sharp bow to improve sea-worthiness. Nonetheless, although ingeniously designed for the Gulf of Lion weather, this ship sank. Perhaps the sinking had nothing to do with its design. It may have been a simple mistake, perhaps while tacking in a strong gust: the boat heeled too much and was swamped.
The Mandrague de Giens wreck wasn’t connected with the Sestius family organization, but there is good reason to think that such vessels did make up part of the merchant fleet sailing out of Cosa. Whether or not ships of this kind were in the service of the Sestius family, the family shipped huge quantities to what is now southern France. Confirmation comes from a group of French diver-archaeologists, who for more than 25 years studied a different shipwreck, found in 1952 in the Gulf of Marseille, at a depth of 45 meters. It’s name is the “Wreck of Gran Conglué 2,” after the island of its discovery. A very complex archaeological site, it was eventually revealed to be two shipwrecks, one of which was loaded with more than 1,000 amphorae bearing the SES trademark from Roman Cosa.
Roman wine wasn’t a cheap commodity in Gaul. Its consumption was evidently a status symbol. This is made clear by archaeological excavations in far away Corent—almost in the geographic center of France—near the ill-fated town of Gergovie (Gergouia), home of Vercigertorix, the chief of Gaul’s rebellion. Fragments of more than 40 tons of amphorae were used as a paving material for the houses of rich Gauls. This amphora pavement stands as material evidence of ostentation, a symbol of opulence, because of the volume and value of the wine consumed to have produced so many empty amphorae. Use of wine amphorae as paving material aslo gives us information about the inclination and economic power of the Gauls to allocate huge resources for a product of constantly increasing profitability for the Romans. Moreover, only the lure of vast profits can explain the presence of enterprising Roman wine traders in a hostile region, well beyond the protection that Roman legions provided in the occupied areas of southern Gaul.
In the monumental Bibliotheca historica about the habits of the Gauls, Greek historian Diodorus Siculus describes the relationship between wine and the Gauls:
They like beyond any reasonable measure the wine imported by merchants and they drink it straight[1] and they are so avid of this drink that they get drunk and fall asleep or assume insane and furious attitudes.
For this reason many merchants from Italy, with their usual lust for money, think that this Gauls propensity is a gift given to them by the God of commerce.
So, importing more wine on river waterways, or through the plains making use of vehicles, they make an incredible amount money: giving one amphora of wine they get in exchange a youth, a slave being so the compensation for the drink. [2]
With the manifold interests it involved, the Roman wine trade was a business unlike any other. Eventually, Rome’s merchant presence in Gaul came to an abrupt and brutal end. On February 13th, 53 BCE, in Cenabum, today’s Orléans, all the Roman merchants were massacred. Julius Caesar gives a brief report of the deed in his first-hand account of the Gallic Wars, Commentarii de Bello Gallico:
When that day arrived, the Carnutes . . . at a given signal fell upon Cenabum and killed the Roman citizens who had settled there for reasons of trade, . . . sacking their goods.[3]
Other than political motivations, Caesar says nothing about what else might have caused this extreme Gallic reaction to Roman mercantile penetration. Clearly, Caesar was well aware of the debilitating effects that strong Roman wine could have on populations—such as the Gauls—accustomed to a low-alcohol drink like beer.
In a less well-known passage of de Bello Gallico, Caesar writes about the Suebi:
They do not allow at all the importation of wine, because they think that, in order to endure hard work, it softens and effeminates men. [4]
With written evidence of a social backlash to wine’s negative effects, it seems reasonable to suppose that the massacre of Roman traders at Cenabum grew out of a hostile attitude on the part of influential Gauls towards the intoxicating and habit-forming properties of the Roman beverage.
Referring to the Gallic insurgency that began at Cenabum, French historian Fernand Braudel[5] dares this comment after quoting the Diodorus Siculus passage above:
Here we have something which calls to our mind the dope traffic which today brings so many benefits to the intermediaries, the transporters, the distributors and, finally, to the poppy cultivators in the Far East (1986).
After the Cenabum massacre, perhaps to continue imposing wine on a susceptible population, Caesar tightened the vise of his legions on the Gauls. In September, 52 BCE, in Alésia, today’s Alise St. Reine in the heart of Burgundy, the rebellion against the Romans was crushed, Vercingetorix surrendered and, brought to Rome as a prisoner, later executed.
The fight continued for some months, but before the end of 51 BCE, after seven years of intermittent war, the entire region of Gaul was pacified. This Pax Romana (Roman peace), according to Plutarch, cost Gaul over a million dead, and a million natives of both sexes reduced to slavery.
Roman wine traders could continue their profitable work.
The first commercial conquest in history was complete.
A tunneled canal excavated in the rock to direct the evacuated sand to the sea. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Castings of neck markings of Sestius family amphoras. Symbols after letters SES indicate: provenance, type of wine, quality, price — much like labels today. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Artist’s rendering of the ship known as the “wreck of Mandrague de Giens.” CREDIT: Water color by Jean Marie Gassend.
Cosa Capitolium north side. The temple was dedicated to the Capitoline Triad composed of the three supreme deities: Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Cosa Forum remains. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Capitolium, south side. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Skeleton’s house (Roman masonry). Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Skeleton’s house, mosaic paving. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Cosa town walls, north view and north town entryway. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
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Olive tree of Cosa hill, purported to be 1,000 years old. Photo by Ugo Venturoli.
Cover Photo, Top Left: Roman wine amphorae. Carole Raddato, Wikimedia Commons
[1] Romans drank their wine—which usually had an alcohol content of 16% by volume—mixed with water: 1 part wine to two parts water.
[3] “Ubi ea dies venit, Carnutes… Cenabum signo dato concurrunt civesque romanos, qui negotiandi causa ibi constiterant,….interficiunt bonaque eorum diripiunt.”
Julius Caesar Commentarii de Bello Gallico 7.3.
[4] “Vinum ad se omnino importari non sinunt, quod ea re ad laborem ferendum remollescere homines atque effeminari arbitrantur.”
Julius Caesar Commentarii de Bello Gallico 4.2.
[5] “Voilà qui fait penser au commerce de la drogue qui, aujourd’hui, favorise tellements les intérmediaires, les trasporteurs, les distributeurs, et au lointain départ, les paysans cultivateurs de pavot, en Extreme-Orient.”
Fernand Braudel, L’Identité de la France (1986), 111.
Pieta Greaves is the Staffordshire Hoard Conservation Project Manager at the Birmingham Museums Trust. Her conservation specialisation is in archaeological materials. This has led her to work on some of the most important archaeological assemblages excavated in the last few years. For these projects it was important to liaise with a range of professionals including curators, archaeologists, conservators and other experts, to ensure the objects reached their archaeological potential.
Pieta has also worked on an extensive range of other object types, including social history, arms and armour, statues and sculpture, also carrying out preventive and remedial conservation for exhibition, loans, storage and research. Prior to training as a conservator at Cardiff University, she worked as an archaeologist in New Zealand and Australia, having graduated from Auckland University in 2001. She has also worked on overseas excavations in Egypt and during the summer of 2014 will be spending 4 weeks conserving an important wall painting in Belize as part of the Maya Research Program field school.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found, anywhere in the world. Discovered in a field near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England on 5 July 2009, the Hoard totals 5.094 kilos of gold, 1.442 kilos of silver and 3,500 cloisonné garnets. There is nothing comparable in terms of content and quantity in the UK or mainland Europe. It is remarkable for being almost exclusively military in nature, with an extraordinary quantity of pommel caps and hilt plates. Many feature beautiful garnet inlays or animals in elaborate filigree. There are also a small but significant number of Christian objects, including crosses and a biblical inscription.
The finds were jointly acquired by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent (PMAG) following one of the most successful public fundraising campaigns in English history, raising the £3.285m (US$5.255m) asking price in less than three months.
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The hoard emerges. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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The Staffordshire Hoard conservation and research program is a multi-disciplinary collaborative program. The conservation program began in 2010 and has to date conserved over 3500 objects and fragments. It is now beginning to shed light on the technological capabilities and techniques of the Anglo-Saxon craftsmen. The artefacts have tentatively been dated to the late 6th and early 7th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Kingdom of Mercia.
Since the discovery, experts have theorised about why the hoard was deposited where it was, and whether the treasure was left by Christians or pagans. Every passing day reveals new facts and questions about the Hoard, its history and its heritage, but what we already know is that the average quality of the workmanship is extremely high, comparable to some of the finest known objects in the Anglo-Saxon world. This is especially remarkable in view of the large number of individual objects from which the elements in the hoard came.
The hoard contains mainly fittings from edged weapons, including sword pommel caps. The pommel cap is the tip of the hilt of a sword that anchors the hilt fittings to the sword blade. Single pommel caps from this period are incredibly rare archaeological finds, and to find 93 together is unprecedented.
However, some important elements are missing from the hoard. It does not contain any of the iron sword blades or organic components, such as horn or wooden grips, which would have been part of the original object. All of the objects have historical damage due to their harsh dismantling at some point prior to deposition. Many are torn or misshapen and some show the early stages of having been cut into pieces.
The famous Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf contains lines that some experts believe may describe circumstances similar to the burial of the hoard:
“One warrior stripped the other, looted Ongentheow’s iron mail-coat, his hard sword-hilt, his helmet too, and carried graith to King Hygelac; he accepted the prize, promised fairly that reward would come, and kept his word. They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure, gold under gravel, gone to earth, as useless to men now as it ever was.”
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Artifact showing its damaged condition. CourtesyBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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The hoard contains only one written text, a biblical inscription written in Latin and misspelled in two places. It reads: “Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face.” (Numbers 10:35).
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Biblical inscription strip. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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The role conservation plays in the discovery process
The conservation team is based at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. With the help of common garden thorns and high powered microscopes, the conservators have been uncovering spectacular details of the elaborate and minuscule designs as well as technological aspects of the construction of the objects, which has enriched the whole project.
Conservators are the first to see the objects and record their details. The fine craftsmanship of the filigree and cloisonné is astonishing.
Our objective is to clean away soils that are obscuring the surface, arrest any corrosion of the hoard objects, and ensure their long-term preservation. The work of conservators is important not only because it preserves the Hoard objects for the future but also because the careful examination and cleaning involved may reveal information that helps us understand the artefacts more fully.
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Conservation underway. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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Our job is like excavation – but on a much smaller scale. Instead of trowels and mattocks we use cotton swabs and thorns. The gold is soft, and can scratch easily. Traditional conservation tools such as scalpels and steel pins may risk damage to the delicate surfaces. Thorns are a natural product, and unlike cocktail sticks or metal tools they neither split nor scratch the gold.
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Natural thorns used for the delicate cleaning of the artifacts. CourtesyBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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Like an excavation, the process is inherently destructive, affecting how we decide what to do and how to execute our treatments. When we clean we remove soil which cannot be replaced. We must be able to justify our actions; we are removing one part of an object’s history to reveal another.
Our main goal is to ensure the objects’ survival. Our approach is unique to each piece, depending on its condition: cleaning can reveal both physical weakness, such as broken and distorted fragments, and chemical weakness, such as corrosion of the copper alloy and silver components. Physically unstable objects require consolidation or the addition of another material to strengthen them. In these cases we must weigh the fragile nature of an object against the effect of a consolidant or adhesive on its research potential. The question we ask ourselves each time is this: Will this have a negative effect on future analysis or understanding? The answer is not always obvious.
In addition to cleaning and stabilising hoard objects, an important part of the conservation process is producing accurate documentation of the objects and the conservation treatments applied to them. Thorough photographic and written documentation of objects is useful to researchers, and because of the many hours spent examining objects under the microscope, the conservator is often the person who is most familiar with every small detail of an object. Tiny details that might be missed in a less thorough examination can reveal useful information such as materials present (inlays, solder, organic material etc), evidence of how the object was made or evidence of use (worn areas, dents, cuts, etc), and it is important that this information be made accessible to others.
Conservation documentation for the Hoard consists primarily of digital photographs and photomicrographs (i.e., photographs taken through a microscope) and written reports; in some cases hand-drawn sketches are made and scanned electronically.
What have we discovered during the conservation?
The fact the Hoard objects were damaged when they were dismantled prior to deposition provides a great advantage when it comes to understanding them. The fragmentary nature of the hoard helps us to see features that are hidden on whole or undamaged examples from other sites. Possible maker’s marks, laying out marks and solder are just some of the details that we have been able to observe under the microscope due to the damage.
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Damage revealing construction. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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There are many types of objects in the Hoard, but focusing on three types best describes how conservation plays its part in the post-excavation process: these are filigree, garnet cloisonné and niello work.
Filigree
The main elements of the filigree are short lengths of wire which are soldered onto the surface of objects to form zoomorphic and geometric designs. The most common types are beaded wires (so-called because they have a series of bumps that resemble a string of beads) and round twisted wires. At first glance these designs might look as if they are formed by long interlaced wires, but they are actually formed of many short sections of wire painstakingly arranged to create this illusion. Careful examination of the wires reveals the snipped ends where the interlace strands meet. The level of detail and the size of the wires are a great delight: some are very tiny at only 0.3mm wide and 3.99mm long.
When we clean such objects, we are looking for evidence of how they were made, including how the wires were attached or soldered to the back plate.
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Above and below, filigree details. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Detail showing two of the snake heads with gold granules for eyes. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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Garnet cloisonné
The garnet cloisonné objects show a high level of sophistication in both their construction and design. Like the filigree objects, the garnets are also designed in both geometric and zoomorphic designs. We are yet to discover how the garnets were cut into such small sizes and thicknesses. Garnets do not naturally cleave, so it would have required grinding. But this is difficult due to the very hard nature of the stones.
Each garnet fits perfectly into an individual cell and a small gold stamped foil sits behind each stone. The purpose of this stone is to provide a reflective surface so the garnets appear to sparkle brightly. This concept is similar to the manufacture of bicycle reflectors today. Four different gold foil designs have been identified across the Hoard objects and from this, researchers may be able to make comparisons with other objects that have been found in Britain, in an attempt to identify historical workshops or regional types. Underneath the foil is a ‘paste’ possibly made of beeswax or a similar material. The purpose of the paste is to level the individual garnets so they sit flush across the surface of the object and sparkle.
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Above and below: Foils behind garnets. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Conservation has revealed some unexpected discoveries among the cloisonné objects, including tiny pieces of inset glass. So far, 17 items have been found to contain red glass: some of which seems to have been used to replace garnets that had become damaged or lost. There are also examples of green and blue glass, as well as fine examples of millefiori checked designs, which are likely to be recycled Roman glass elements.
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Millefiori Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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Glass replacement Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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Niello
Niello is a term used to describe a black applied design technique. Niello is a metal sulphide formed of silver, copper and/or lead filings combined with sulphur. When heated, this mixture fuses into a hard, slightly glossy black substance that is used as an inlay material. Typically, a channel is carved into a metal object and the niello is inserted into it, where it hardens.
Much of the niello work is applied onto silver, and the Hoard contains a large number of broken fragments of this, whereas only three Hoard objects made of gold have niello inlay. The silver objects are fragmentary, heavily tarnished and corroded, and piecing them back together, rather like a giant jigsaw, is one of the major challenges for the conservation team.
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Niello under reconstruction. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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What else have we been doing in conservation?
The project has also taken an open and collegiate approach to conservation, unique for archaeological materials recovered in the UK.
The conservation team has not only conserved the materials to a high professional standard, it has also successfully engaged both conservation professionals and public audiences, and through delivery of an extraordinary range of activities over a short time period, has raised the profile of conservation in the UK and worldwide.
We have launched many initiatives, including engagement with the conservation profession in the form of professional development placements for experienced conservators, internships for conservation students, and the inclusion of volunteers and non-conservation placements. Wider engagement through a programme of talks, studio tours, open days, written and video blogs was launched by the conservation team to create a supportive public community of interest.
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Young students at microscopes. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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What’s next for the Hoard?
The conservation work is ongoing and we are working in close collaboration with the research project team to create a detailed record of the Hoard and to better understand its wider context. Over the next few years, the conservation and research project will deliver a publicly-accessible database and a landmark academic volume about the collection. However, there are still many new questions to answer about the Hoard, and we continue to fundraise to support both the conservation and research of this unique, exciting and important collection.
Meredith Poole has been a Staff Archaeologist with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for 26 years. In addition to field work, her responsibilities include outreach and archaeology education. Meredith received her MA in Anthropology from the College of William and Mary, and her BA from Hamilton College.
About 80 years ago, more than five years before the onset of World War II, American laborers and archaeologists completed reconstruction on what was perhaps America’s most iconic architectural symbol of British colonialism—the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia. Just before the outbreak of revolutionary war, it was still the seat of British power and authority on American soil. Today, it is arguably the grandest reconstructed visible reminder of the U.S. colonial past. The following article (originally published in March 2014 in Popular Archaeology Magazine) by Meredith Poole, senior staff archaeologist with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, revisits the events and people who resurrected the Palace from its oblivion on the landscape, creating a powerful magnet for thousands of visitors every year and, to this day, still a subject for education and historical research.
—DM
Three days before Christmas, 1781, the sun set on the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg for the final time. A few hours later, an errant spark…or a disaffected citizen… set fire to this stately brick edifice, reducing it to rubble by sunrise. News of the unfortunate event spread quickly, prompting the following lines in a Charleston newspaper:
“Last Saturday night about eleven o’clock the palace in the City of Williamsburg, which is supposed to have been set on fire by some malicious person, was in three hours burnt to the ground. This elegant building has been for sometime past a continental hospital, and upwards of one hundred sick and wounded soldiers were in it when the fire was discovered, but by the timely exertions of a few people, only one perished in the flames.”
(The Royal Gazette of Charleston, South Carolina)
The dramatic story of the wounded soldiers aside, the loss of the Palace was devastating. Indeed, if the story had ended with that smoldering rubble, today’s visitor to Colonial Williamsburg might feel cheated.
The reconstructed Palace is among Colonial Williamsburg’s most popular attractions, welcoming more than 350,000 visitors each year. While far fewer eighteenth-century citizens were invited through its scrolled iron gates, the “Palace” (perhaps a tongue-in-cheek reference to the excesses of its construction) was an attraction. Completed in 1722 after sixteen years of labor, this over-the-top residence for the royal governor, the king’s representative in Virginia, was unlike anything most citizens had seen on this side of the Atlantic. The interior incorporated extravagant materials: marble floors and walnut paneling. As many as twenty support buildings…from an ice house to a smokehouse to a bathhouse… dotted its landscape, and the lavish grounds included canals, terraces, walks, and ornamental gardens. True, by 1781 (as the newspaper article hints) many of these glories had begun to fade, particularly after 1780 when removal of the capital to Richmond took the sitting governor, Thomas Jefferson, with it. Nevertheless, the vacated Palace remained an iconic building, symbolizing the importance — even in the past tense — of Williamsburg as political center.
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The reconstructed Governor’s Palace. Photo credit: Roy Kelley
Fast-forward to 1927. Fueled by the vision of cleric/preservationist Rev. W.A.R. Goodwin and the philanthropic impulse of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., plans for restoring Williamsburg to its eighteenth-century heyday were underway. Behind the patched facades of the twentieth-century town, researchers had discovered eighty-eight buildings dating from the 1700s…a healthy core, but only a fraction of those standing at the eve of the American Revolution. Among the missing were public buildings important to Williamsburg’s identity: the Capitol, the Raleigh Tavern, and the Governor’s Palace. To move the restoration forward, evidence for these buildings would have to be located. And so in November 1928 Williamsburg’s Advisory Committee of Architects, a steering committee of respected professionals, moved that: “Someone, preferably an archaeologist, be hired to make a thorough record of the restoration.”
Prentice Duell hardly seemed to be that man. Trained as an architect, he was a lecturer in classical archaeology at Bryn Mawr and had just completed a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. In 1930, as he was being courted to oversee the Palace excavation, Duell had just been named the Oriental Institute’s Field Director for the Sakkarah Pyramid Expedition. Such a resume begs the question: Why an Egyptologist in Williamsburg?
Archaeology was a different discipline in 1930. Today, Colonial Williamsburg employs historical archaeologists, specializing in sites and artifacts of North America’s documented past. In Duell’s time, this distinction was still decades in the future, leaving classical archaeologists and Egyptologists at the forefront of the field. Particularly in the wake of Howard Carter’s discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen, archaeology’s “big names” were to be found among the ranks of Egyptologists.
And so on Monday morning, June 30th 1930, Egyptologist Prentice Duell found himself in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the south end of Palace Green, surveying the project area. It might have been easier to imagine a pyramid on this landscape than it was to envision the Palace. Once the tree-lined approach to the seat of royal authority, Palace Green was now cluttered with monuments to more recent history. Power lines swung lazily over the street, and in the near distance a marble obelisk commemorated the Civil War dead. Williamsburg’s new high school, completed in 1921, occupied the northern end of the green, and in its shadow stood the 1870 Matty School. What Duell saw was a neighborhood. Behind the schools, in the former “governor’s park,” a network of streets delivered Williamsburg residents to their 20th century destinations: the Virginia Electric and Power Company, the Williamsburg Laundry, an ice-making plant, a tin shop, and the C&O railroad station. There were homes sprinkled among these businesses…but no visible evidence of eighteenth century grandeur.
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The Palace neighborhood in 1929. Major Palace features outlined in red; 20th century buildings in blue. Diamond shapes are brick piers marking garden walls (image based on architectural drawing entitled “Sketch of Site of Colonial Governor’s Palace and Grounds as it appeared in 1929 before excaations were made.” May 23, 1933.) Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Historic maps and drawings told a different story. Duell’s arsenal included three key pieces: the Frenchman’s Map, drawn near the end of the American Revolution, indicated the Palace’s placement relative to the town. The Bodleian Plate, a 1740 copperplate engraving named for the British library in which it had recently been discovered, provided elevations for the Palace and its Advance Buildings, and hinted at the surrounding gardens. The final clue was a sketch done by Thomas Jefferson in 1779. Recently elected Virginia’s governor, Jefferson was planning changes to his new home, and had begun the renovations with this carefully measured floor plan.
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Detail of the Governor’s Palace from the Frenchman’s Map (note L-shaped building). (Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.)
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Detail of Governor’s Palace from the Bodleian Plate (1740). Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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A team of nine gathered with Duell on that late June morning: field superintendent Herbert Ragland, a foreman and 7 laborers supplied by the contracting firm of Todd & Brown, Inc. Armed with shovels, they started behind the Matty School, digging trenches in a location suggested by the Frenchman’s Map. Within the day, their efforts were rewarded with plaster and brick rubble, then sections of a brick drain. Tuesday brought an eighth worker, a few sections of intact wall, and some recognizable artifacts: a “front door key,” “some beautiful pottery and china fragments,” and a few bones (perhaps too hastily declared human by the former superintendent of the state mental institution). A breathless Western Union telegram announced the day’s findings to the Rockefeller office in New York. By Wednesday afternoon, a steadily growing work force exposed a section of the Palace’s cellar floor in a trench 7 feet below grade. The excavation was off to a successful start.
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Excavations behind the Matty School, which was demolished in 1930 and not restored. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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At first glance, the presence of a “trained archaeologist” on the site seems to have had little impact; what would happen over the next four months on the Palace site typified the state of “archaeology” in 1930. The project was unabashedly architectural in its focus. Duell was employed by architects, whose goal was accurate reconstruction on original foundations, using authentic materials and correct finishes. Excavators were there to retrieve that evidence. Tools were large—mainly picks and shovels– and those who wielded them were employed for their ability to move dirt. To the modern archaeological ear, descriptions of the process are jarring. Ragland recalled that “In excavating the debris of brick, mortar and plaster, which was found in the entire basement, the debris was under cut as much as possible so that it fell away from and exposed the walls before they were struck by the picks of the workmen.” This was not delicate work.
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Palace cellar, early August 1930. One of the figures in a white suit is likely Prentice Duell. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Not surprisingly, progress was quick. An image captured in early August shows the Palace cellar nearly emptied of charred brick rubble. A procession of laborers push mounded wheelbarrows up a long ramp, at the bottom of which stand two nattily attired gentlemen (one of whom is likely Duell) looking suspiciously fresh in the heat of a Virginia summer.
By August 8th, Ragland reports that they had “practically finished excavation of the basement.” The foundation walls were found to be largely intact to a height of about 4 feet. Indeed, visitors to the cellars today may be able to detect the height at which the Palace’s original brick wall gives way to the newer brick used in reconstruction. The floors, paved with a combination of stone and brick, also survived to be incorporated into the reconstruction. One of the project’s most interesting revelations was that the back wall of the (1870) Matty school had been built directly on top of the Palace’s front wall, suggesting that the latter was visible (or at least accessible) when the school was constructed. This was not a happy coincidence for the Matty School; by July 22nd demolition was underway. With both the Palace cellar and a later ballroom addition now in the clear, the project’s architects compared the outline to Jefferson’s 1779 floor plan and found a match. The recovery effort had taken just over 5 weeks.
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Overall image of excavated Palace cellar. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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But if excavation methods were quick and crude by today’s standards, we should acknowledge some moments of archaeological precocity. At a time when foundations were prized far above their contents, Duell designated twelve “excavation areas” within the Palace cellar, providing a rough provenience for recovered artifacts. Recognizing that, in a fire, building materials from upper floors would collapse into the spaces directly below, Duell began to draw order and pattern from the cellar’s jumbled debris. Slabs of black and white dressed marble recovered from the cellar’s south central end were interpreted as a checkered pattern marble floor in the first floor hall, above. Likewise, two halves of a marble mantel, carved with a deer motif, were scooped from the rubble in the south-east corner of the cellar, now mended and reinstalled above the first-floor front parlor fireplace in the reconstructed Palace.
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The entrance hall within the reconstructed Palace showing the marble floor. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Other artifacts found more general homes in the reconstruction. Eight complete delft tiles recovered from one of the Palace’s arched brick drains were incorporated into decorative fireplace surrounds: six manganese (purple) decorated tiles in the first floor “Little Middle Room” are survivals from the Palace, as are two cobalt (blue) decorated tiles in the northeast upstairs bedchamber. Despite more than a century underground, they defy detection in a surrounding field of antiques… although visitors are challenged to try!
Whether whole or broken, artifacts received more attention during the Palace excavation than they would for another three decades at Colonial Williamsburg. Ragland ended each week’s notes with a familiar refrain: “Wheeled all excavated material to rear of the lot.” Images reveal the resulting mountain of fill heaped in front of the Virginia Power Company. By late September (1930), as the pace of excavation began to slow, laborers were dispatched two or three at a time to screen this cellar fill, searching for overlooked evidence of the Palace’s design. Ultimately, more than 50 “fish crates” – rough wooden boxes measuring 15” x 28” x 15”—full of artifacts, were recovered from the Palace property. Though heavily biased toward architectural materials (chunks of marble, locks, hinges, hooks, and tile fragments), this collection marks a vast increase over the 2 or 3 crates retained from contemporary Williamsburg excavations. Fish crates were stacked in the first floor hall of the adjacent high school, ultimately finding their way into two first floor classrooms designated as temporary exhibit space. This impromptu museum would be undone when the excavation’s success resulted in the school’s demolition.
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Workers screen a mound of Palace fill in front of the Virginia Electric and Power Co. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Though Duell was the Palace excavation’s big name, it was Ragland, from nearby Richmond Virginia, who kept the project moving. It was he who kept records of each day’s progress, and of the growing number of unnamed workers employed. By the end of July, more than 60 men were engaged as excavation spilled out beyond the Palace cellar and onto the Palace grounds.
Many were searching for Palace outbuildings named in eighteenth century documents, but long vanished from the landscape. Trenches dug to the underlying “hardpan” successfully teased these brick foundations from the soil, but without consistentcollection of artifacts, it was difficult to understand each building’s use. Some foundations spoke for themselves: the smokehouse, for example, displayed a characteristic central fire-pit, filled with ash from smoking meats. Other identifications required deductive reasoning. The kitchen, known through records to have been constructed simultaneously with the Palace, was identified by the similarity of its brick. The laundry was identified as the foundation straddling the Palace’s arched brick drain…a useful feature for shunting wash water. And the Governor’s bannio, or bathhouse, was most certainly the exotic eight-sided foundation in the west courtyard. One “dependency”, the Governor’s ice house, survived intact—although by one schoolboy’s account, it was repurposed as a pirate’s cave early in the twentieth century.
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The excavated Palace smokehouse foundation. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Other survivals included earthen terraces, constructed during the tenure of Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood (ca. 1717), and recorded on the Frenchman’s Map. Though heavily eroded, these terraces were reestablished using archaeologically-discovered stair nosings as indicators of their original height. In general, however, garden features proved elusive to Duell and his team. Excavation techniques were primarily to blame. Though trenches were an efficient means of locating brick foundations (and in the case of the Palace, brick piers that framed the garden wall), they were highly unsuccessful in locating less solid features: planting beds and marl pathways separating the Palace’s formal gardens. Today, open-area excavation and the recovery of archaeobotanical samples would allow the Governor’s garden to bloom again. In 1930, however, excavators had reached the limit of methods at their disposal.
It was while searching for garden evidence that excavators made their most startling Palace discovery. Sometime during the middle of July, a worker trenching west of the Palace began to find bones. Swapping a putty knife for his shovel, he soon exposed a human skeleton. Over the next month that single burial became two burials… and eventually dozens. They were laid out in orderly rows, suggesting that each mounded grave had still been visible when the next was dug. Evidently, this cemetery was filled over a short period of time…but who were its occupants? Duell solicited the expertise of the Smithsonian Institution’s Dr. Ales Hrdlička, one of the most respected physical anthropologists of his time. According to a Western Union telegram, Dr. Hrdlička boarded the train from Washington to Williamsburg on August 19th, arriving at 3:22 p.m. By the time he re-boarded at noon the following day, Hrdlička had examined 66 burials prepared for his inspection. A dictated report renders his assessment of the age, sex, and physical condition of the 58 best-preserved specimens. Hrdlička’s pronouncements are often unexplained, and occasionally colorful: “[Burial number] 4. Male. Medium stature; sub-normal in strength. Abcess (sic) of jaw (bad tooth); both legs and thigh badly fractured probably causing death (probably run over); died in pain.”
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Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, a physical anthropologist from the Smithsonian, examining a skull recovered during excavations in the West garden of the Governor’s Palace. Courtesy Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
By summer’s end, 158 burials were laid out in the Palace’s west garden. Of these, 156 were identified as male and 2 as female, nearly all between the ages of 25 and 35. The gender disparity and their youth caused Duell to observe that “these individuals were not the victims of an epidemic. In such a case, a fair cross-section of the population would be represented; here they are all young people and of an age which is the least susceptible to epidemic of any kind.” This appeared to be a military population. Though it would take months to piece together supporting evidence from associated artifacts and documentary sources, the cemetery was eventually linked to those final days of the Revolutionary War, when the vacated Palace was repurposed as that military hospital described in the Charleston Royal Gazette. The 158 bodies interred in the west garden were casualties of the Battle of Yorktown, disease, or the treatment thereof.
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Drawing illustrating the archaeological survey of the Revolutionary War Cemetery. Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Following the 1930 excavation, the bodies of soldiers (and perhaps two nurses) discovered in the Palace yard were reburied. We have no record of who they might be, though a list of the wounded treated at the Palace may surface one day. For the time being, the Palace cemetery keeps a low profile. Unsuspecting visitors might overlook the grassy lawn nestled between the Palace gardens and the canal, or the marble plaque that describes what was discovered here in 1930.
By September, work at the Palace was winding down. Ragland’s daily notes mention screening, photography, and mapping. The labor force dwindled from 17 men, to 4, and then 3. Some days Ragland simply indicated “No work done.” While there was a short burst of digging in 1931 after a street closure opened new parts of the Palace grounds, the Governor’s Palace excavation was largely complete within 4 months. During that time, workers covered an area measuring nearly 6 acres. Ragland wrote the final, 10 page report.
And so what became of the Egyptologist? Duell left Williamsburg in October of 1930, bound for Egypt and the Sakkarah Expedition. An October departure was always part of Duell’s plan, and while he proposed an annual, 5-month return to Williamsburg, the Sakkarah expedition would consume the next five years of his life. He went on to have an illustrious career. In 1938 he published the monumental volume “Mastaba of Mereruka” describing and illustrating that project’s finds. He can be found in Who Was Who in Egyptology, and Who Was Who in America. He held an appointment as associate professor of ancient Mediterranean art at the University of Chicago….but he never returned to Williamsburg.
In December of 1931, a different set of laborers arrived on the site of the Governor’s Palace to begin rebuilding. It was completed in April of 1934, and has now survived longer as a reconstruction than it stood in its original form. Are there questions that were left unanswered by the 1930 excavation? Of course. Archaeology’s goals and techniques have changed radically since 1930, making new questions inevitable. A large “L-shaped” building depicted on the Frenchman’s Map remains a mystery. Workers were so puzzled by what they found there in 1930 that the building was never reconstructed. We have some ideas….but that’s a dig for another day.
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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of the reconstructed Governor’s Palace. Humberto Moreno, Wikimedia Commons
Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition. We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.
Carolyn E. Boyd is the Executive Director and co-founder of SHUMLA, an archeological research and educational nonprofit corporation. She serves as Adjunct Professor at Texas State University and as a Research Fellow at the Center for Arts and Symbolism of the Ancient Americas in San Marcos, Texas and the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory in Austin. Boyd received her doctorate in archeology from Texas A&M University based on her analysis of the 4,000 year-old rock art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and northern Mexico. Her expanded dissertation, Rock Art of the Lower Pecos, was published in 2003 by Texas A&M University Press and is considered an important contribution on rock art analysis and interpretation. She has been published in Antiquity, Latin American Antiquity, Revista Iberoamericana de Lingüística, and has contributed chapters in several edited volumes. Boyd teaches Field Methods in Rock Art, a three-week field school offered each May through Texas State University, gives numerous lectures around the country and abroad, serves on graduate committees, and is the Principal Investigator for the Lower Pecos Border Canyonlands Archeological Project.
“Absolutely incredible” is a phrase repeated time and again as people gaze in awe at the majestic murals in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Whether one is an archeologist, lawyer, accountant, teacher or student, these ancient paintings elicit a similar response. Among rock art scholars, the complexity and compositional intricacies of Lower Pecos rock art are considered unrivaled on the global stage. Renowned French archaeologist Dr. Jean Clottes says, “It is my considered opinion—after having seen rock art on all the continents—the Pecos River rock art is second to none and ranks among the top bodies of rock art anywhere in the world.” The intrinsic value of the artistic record left behind by hunters and gatherers of the Lower Pecos thousands of years ago is incalculable.
The rough, rocky, arid country referred to as the Lower Pecos Canyonlands is centered upon the confluence of the Pecos River with the Rio Grande. This region extends approximately 100 miles north and south of the United States–Mexico border, and approximately 50 miles east and west of the confluence. The landscape is incised by deep, narrow canyons that slice through masses of grayish white limestone rock, remnants of a huge inland sea that covered the region during the Cretaceous period 100 million years ago. Wind and water erosion acting on the limestone substrate produced hundreds of rockshelters that provided refuge for prehistoric inhabitants. Groups of hunters and gatherers periodically occupied the rockshelters throughout the Holocene, leaving behind one of the best-preserved and longest records of Native American lifeways—11,000 years ago to the time of European contact. This is considered one of the most significant archaeological regions in the world.
Map of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. (Map courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
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Excavation of dry rockshelter deposits has yielded a wide assemblage of artifacts, such as wood and bone tools, matting, basketry, snares and the accumulated detritus of everyday living. Occasionally stone pipes and calcite crystals are found along with abundant chipped stone tools and grinding stones. Mobiliary art in the form of small painted pebbles and other painted objects such as wood, bone and snail shells are not uncommon in the dry shelters as are engraved stone plaquettes and freshwater mussel shells. Other artifacts include feather plumes, rasping sticks, fire-starting kits and medicinal and hallucinogenic plants such as peyote and datura.
Throughout prehistory, inhabitants of the Lower Pecos lived in small, mobile groups often referred to as bands. It isn’t unusual for people to think of these prehistoric hunters and gatherers as being vastly different from us, and in some ways they certainly were. They didn’t have agriculture, houses with central air and heat, cars, or the internet. They were, however, more like us than they were different. These were anatomically modern humans with the same cognitive capacity and capabilities as you and I today. They had the same brain that put a man on the moon. And, yes, they had a language—likely one with a vocabulary far richer than we can ever imagine to describe life, death, the land and the heavens. That they were socially well organized and intellectually capable is amply demonstrated in the archeological record, and the most compelling evidence comes from the elaborate, polychromatic murals painted on canyon and rockshelter walls (See the gallery at the end of this article).
The Painted Landscape
Pictographs are the most abundant form of rock art found in the Lower Pecos. These polychromatic paintings and drawings are made with mineral pigments and other natural ingredients, such as animal fat and plant juices. The paintings were applied to the rock surface using brushes made from animal hair, plant fibers, feathers, or fingers. Dry-applied pictographs are drawn on rock surfaces using pigment crayons or charcoal. Pictographs in the Lower Pecos have been categorized into five styles or classifications in a chronological sequence—Historic, Red Monochrome, Bold Line Geometric, Red Linear, and Pecos River.
Historic Period Rock Art
From northern Mexico to the canyons of Utah, artists of the Historic period captured initial contact with European culture in pictographic form. The rock art produced during this period demonstrated a preoccupation with domesticated animals, such as horses and cattle, churches, and the clothing and accoutrements of Spaniards. With the arrival of the Plains Indians into the region, such as the Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche, pictographs were executed in their Ceremonial and Early Biographical styles. Common themes include bison hunting, individual and group combat, weaponry, thunderbirds, dancing, horses, and figures with elaborate headdresses.
Red Monochrome Style
The Red Monochrome style began to be produced in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands sometime around 900 A.D. It is characterized by life-size images of humans and animals painted in varying shades of red. Rigid, human forms are solidly painted and portrayed frontally with their arms bent at the elbow, forearms raised, and legs apart. Red Monochrome animals are typically painted in profile and include realistic depictions of mountain lions, deer, turkeys, rabbits, dogs, and aquatic life, such as turtles and catfish. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Red Monochrome style is the portrayal of bows and arrows, an attribute that reinforces the placement of this style within the Late Prehistoric.
Bold Line Geometric
The least represented of the pictograph styles is referred to as Bold Line Geometric. It is characterized by bold, geometric designs, including zigzag, lattice, and herringbone patterns. Small human- and insect-like forms painted in deep red are the only figures that are not the characteristic geometric forms. It has been tentatively dated to the Late Prehistoric.
Red Linear Style
Red Linear style is typically characterized by animated, small, fine-lined figures of animals and humans. Most are only about 2 to 4 inches in length; some are as small as one-half inch. Their diminutive size has resulted in an under-appreciation for these intriguing paintings, as well as an under-estimation of the number of sites containing them.
There is tremendous diversity within the corpus of Red Linear imagery. Although some figures are rigid and static, others are quite fluid, evoking a sense of movement as humans engage in group activities, such as dancing, hunting, and possibly conflict. In addition to humans, pictographic elements include geometrics and animals, such as deer, canines, and rabbits. Both humans and animals are portrayed holding atlatls and fending sticks.
This style was believed to have been produced during the Late Archaic around 1,280 years ago after the Pecos River style, but prior to the Red Monochrome. Recently, however, we have identified numerous examples of Pecos River style rock art superimposing Red Linear style pictographs.
Pecos River Style
The vast majority of the rock art in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, and that which sets it apart from all other rock art in the world, is referred to as Pecos River style. It is the most abundant, complex, and sophisticated of the regional rock art styles. In the early 1990s, chemists began collecting paint samples from seriously deteriorated Pecos River paintings for experimental radiocarbon dating. The dates obtained range from 4200±90 to 2750±50 RCYBP (radiocarbon years before present). If accurate, the 4200 year-old painting is the oldest dated pictograph in North America. In calendar years, this translates to approximately 2700 BCE.
Exquisite in detail and masterful in execution, the Pecos River style murals document myths, histories, and rituals of people living in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands thousands of years ago. They represent the oldest known “books” in North America. Artists of these paintings used an array of earth colors to create elaborate murals that are impressive in the level of skill required to produce them, as well as sheer size and complexity. Some of the panels are massive, spanning over 100 feet in length and 30 feet in height—dimensions requiring significant planning and construction of scaffolding and ladders. Other panels are quite small, tucked away in secluded alcoves high above the canyon floor.
It was long believed that these murals represented numerous painting episodes executed by different artists over hundreds or even thousands of years. Although over-painting exists, through detailed analysis of these panels, we now know that most are not a random collection of images painted over the course of time, but rather well-ordered compositions, planned arrangements of elements in a work of art to communicate an idea. Lower Pecos artists used pigment crayons or pieces of ochre to sketch out and organize the elements of their compositions. Vestiges of these preliminary sketches still can be seen today.
The artistic merit and compositional quality of the panels were noted by the early pioneers in Lower Pecos rock art recording. Forrest Kirkland observed that the rock art “communicates a sense of color harmony unsurpassed by painters of our own time” and arranged so perfectly on the wall that “to move a single important element would seriously injure their delicate balance and detract from their artistic merit.”
The geographic boundaries of the Pecos River style, although not clearly defined, appear to center on the confluence of the Pecos River with the Rio Grande and extend about 100 miles in all directions. In Texas, most are located along the Pecos, Devils, and Rio Grande canyons and their tributary systems. Sites in Coahuila, Mexico, are also predominantly confined to well-watered canyons and their tributaries.
Pictographic elements included in the Pecos River style murals include anthropomorphs or human-like figures, animals, a wide range of geometric imagery, and enigmatic, fantastic creatures that are not identifiable as human or animal. Anthropomorphs are by far the most frequently depicted element. Although these figures share many common characteristics, such as elongated, rectangular bodies with disproportionally short arms and legs, there is an incredible amount of diversity within what is called “Pecos River style anthropomorphs.”
Although most anthropomorphs range in size between 3 to 7 feet, some are monumental, towering over 20 feet in height. Others are pocket-sized; the smallest recorded Pecos River style anthropomorph is only 3 inches tall. These fascinating figures are often finely executed in red, yellow, black, and white. Yet, many are painted in only one color and far less elaborate. Not only is there variability in the form and color of these figures, but also in the accoutrements and paraphernalia depicted with them. Headdresses of varying types, clusters of feathers at the waist, and wrist or elbow tassels often adorn these human-like figures. Generally the artists portray anthropomorphs wielding paraphernalia, such as atlatls, spears, and staffs. The atlatl and spear are usually linked to the right hand of the figure; feathered darts, rabbit sticks, and staffs are linked to the left hand. But sometimes none of these items are present or they are associated with the opposite hand.
Animals are portrayed in the Pecos River style paintings. Deer and felines are the most common; birds and canines to a lesser degree. Some imagery resembles insects, such as caterpillars, dragonflies, and moths or butterflies. Sinuous, snake-like figures are also portrayed in the rock art.
Understanding the Meaning and Process
Why did artists thousands of years ago spend time, energy, and resources in the production of these enigmatic panels?
Beginning in the 1950s, researchers suggested that perhaps the art represented a hunting cult or medicine society. Shortly after, the elaborately portrayed anthropomorphic figures were identified as shamans, the intermediaries between the human and spirit world. It wasn’t long before the term “shaman” became a catchall for all Pecos River anthropomorphs. By the late 1980s, it was generally accepted that any attempt to interpret Pecos River rock art, beyond shamanism, would be at best speculative. The obstacles faced by archaeologists attempting to interpret the art seemed almost insurmountable. The mantra heard time and again was that “the meaning of the art was lost with the people who produced it.”
Patterns………..
Although the artists of the Lower Pecos are gone, their myths and belief systems have endured in the shared symbolic language of the native peoples living today. Actors and details may change, but basic story lines and concepts persist. This shared symbolic world is exemplified in the ancient rock art of the Lower Pecos, and the key to unlocking these visual texts is not lost. Just as forensic detectives look for patterns to solve crimes and cryptologists look for patterns to break secret codes, archeologists look for patterns to interpret rock art. We begin by documenting the rock art panel in detail, capturing each pictographic element, the attributes of that element, and its contextual relationship to other imagery in the panel. This allows us to identify variation and consistency in artistic styles, recurring patterns, and anomalies in the art.
One of the most ubiquitous patterns we have identified combines antlered anthropomorphs with dots on the tips of their antler tines; spear-impaled deer, and dots or circles that also are impaled. To understand the meaning of this pattern, we compared patterns in the rock art with similar patterns in myths and iconographies of many Mesoamerican groups. Almost immediately we found notable parallels with the myths of the Huichol Indians of Mexico, as well as other Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples. This pattern led us to the identification of not only ritual practices involving the use of the sacred peyote cactus, but to mythological characters and deities associated with the origins of peyote and the birth of the Sun. Ultimately, we were led to identifying one of the most famous murals in the region—White Shaman Shelter—as a pictorial creation narrative, perhaps the oldest in North America. But how could we know that this 24-foot-long rock art panel was painted as a single composition?
…………and Process
Patterns provide clues to “what” the rock art means. But to get at the “how” requires an examination of the technical history of a rock art panel—how the mural was painted. Through documentation and analysis of the sequential ordering of motifs, we have begun to gain insights into deeper layers of meaning—the artistic and cognitive processes that led to the creation of the art.
Our most recent discoveries about the operational sequence of the art was truly groundbreaking and, frankly, mind-boggling. We began producing layered, digital illustrations of Pecos River style murals using Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq Interactive Pen Display. Using a digitizing stylus directly on the Cintiq screen, we digitally applied the paint layer by layer to reproduce the original painting sequence. The challenge, however, was identifying the paint layers. Hand lenses, macro photography, and magnifiers proved inadequate. We needed greater magnification, and we needed to be able to photograph what we were seeing at that level of magnification. I shared our frustration with a colleague, Mark Willis, who has an uncanny ability to find cost effective solutions to technological problems. Sure enough, this was no exception. He introduced us to the Dino-Lite Pro handheld digital microscope with 20X to 220X magnification.
With this tool we returned to the field to capture digital images of microscopic areas within Pecos River murals. And much to our surprise and delight, we were able to confidently and objectively identify painting sequences for almost all figures in the panels. The results were startling. At the sites studied thus far, we could see that the mural artists painted all black imagery first, followed by red, then yellow, then white. Strict rules governed the order in which the paint was applied. Black superimposed black. Red superimposed black. Yellow superimposed red and black, while white superimposed all colors. Identifying the order in which the artist applied paint, color-by-color, figure-by-figure, provided irrefutable evidence that the murals analyzed were indeed single compositions, pictorial narratives.
As an artist and an archaeologist, I have long recognized the extraordinary complexity of Pecos River style rock art. When I first began studying the rock art of the Lower Pecos 20 years ago, my goal was to see if it was even possible to talk about its “meaning” in a meaningful context. However, I have come to realize that the true significance of the art does not exist independently of its organizing structure. Our greatest challenge is not in deciphering the meaning of rock art; it is in recognizing the overriding principles that provided the framework for understanding its meaning and governing its production.
Our analysis confirmed that the murals in many cases, if not all, were planned compositions with rules governing not only the portrayal of symbolic forms, but also the sequencing of colors. Complex images painted in black, red, yellow, and white were woven together to form intricate pictorial narratives. As with the Mesoamerican codices, everything has inherent meaning. Nothing is arbitrary or random, including the order in which the paint is applied. That inherent meaning is part of a larger structural meaning directly relating to and arising out of an earlier culture and fits into a broader continuum that persisted into later cultures in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. It is a continuum that has led to our interpretation of the murals as visual narratives detailing stories of creation, the birth of the sun and beginning of time.
For those interested in learning more about the Lower Pecos story, a new publication entitled Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, edited by Harry J. Shafer, can be obtained at http://tupress.org/books/painters-in-prehistory.
Recommended Reading
Boyd, C. E. 2003 Rock Art of the Lower Pecos. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.
Kirkland, F. and W. W. Newcomb 1967 The Rock Art of Texas Indians. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Shafer, H. J. 1986 Ancient Texans. Texas Monthly Press, Austin.
Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, 2013 edited by Harry J. Shafer. Trinity University Press, San Antonio.
Zintgraff, J., and S. A. Turpin 1991 Pecos River Rock Art: A Photographic Essay. Sandy McPherson Publishing Company, San Antonio, Texas.
In 1849, Captain S.G. French reported seeing Indian paintings near the mouth of the Pecos River, but it was not until the 1930s that serious efforts at recording and studying the art of the region began. These early recording efforts were undertaken by truly remarkable individuals. In 1931, two adventurous women, Emma Gutzeit and Mary Virginia Carson from the Witte Museum in San Antonio, recorded 18 rock art sites, producing watercolor renderings of what they saw.
A few years later, Kirkland, a commercial draftsman, and his wife, Lula, began producing detailed and incredibly accurate watercolor renderings of the major sites in Texas. It was the realization that many of the paintings were being “mutilated and destroyed” that prompted the couple to begin this massive undertaking. Before Kirkland’s untimely death in 1942, he managed to copy 43 rock art panels in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Twenty-five years after Kirkland’s death, W. W. Newcomb wrote The Rock Art of Texas Indians, showcasing Kirkland’s beautiful illustrations and acknowledging the contribution made by Kirkland: “He had attempted what no one else had dared, and he had succeeded beyond the dreams of any. He had copied most of the rock art then known in Texas. His heroic, self-imposed task was completed.”
Archaeologist and author A. T. Jackson also documented rock art sites in Texas in the 1930s. He referred to the Lower Pecos as the “premier pictograph area of the state.” Recognizing the incredible value of these paintings, he launched an intensive rock art documentation project. In his book,The Picture Writing of Texas Indians, he wrote “. . . the rapid destruction of these first works of art and specimens of early writing in Texas creates a crying need for action. . .” to document and preserve the art for future generations.
Recent Efforts
Recognizing the importance of the region and its resources, the Witte Museum of San Antonio, Texas initiated an interdisciplinary effort to study and publicize prehistoric art of the Lower Pecos region in the early 1980s. Drawing on the skills of not only archaeologists, but archaeobotanists, art historians, and social anthropologists, the Witte effort sought to interpret the material culture and investigate the lifestyle of the prehistoric hunter-gatherer inhabitants of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Their endeavors resulted in the “Ancient Texans” exhibit at the Museum and the publication of Ancient Texans: Rock Art and Lifeways along the Lower Pecos by Harry Shafer and Jim Zintgraff. It also led to a significant increase in public awareness of prehistoric art and a greater understanding of the hunting-gathering lifeways of the people who produced the art. Out of this effort came the creation of the Rock Art Foundation to promote and preserve the region’s rock art. The Witte’s commitment to stewardship of the region and its resources is ongoing. Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, edited by Harry Shafer, was recently published in association with the Witte Museum and will serve as the text accompanying their new Lower Pecos exhibition.
Two significant documentation projects also have been launched. A group of dedicated volunteers with The Texas Archeological Society formed a Rock Art Recording Task Force to document rock art sites across Texas. And, for more than a decade, Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center (www.shumla.org), a nonprofit organization located in the Lower Pecos, has been engaged in the most intensive rock art recording project undertaken in the region, the Lower Pecos Rock Art Preservation Initiative. The goal of this project, for which I am the Principal Investigator, is to create a permanent visual and textual archive for present and future generations and to promote rock art preservation through education.
In 1989, my first efforts to document the murals began with the simple tools of an artist. Now, after years of intensive field work with my colleagues at Shumla, I have incorporated into our investigations 3D laser mapping, SfM photography, portable X-ray fluorescence, Dino-Lite handheld microscopes, robotic total data stations, and Wacom Cintiq Interactive Pen Displays. As new technologies become available, we return to sites to capture more data, and each visit is rewarded with new discoveries.
Carolyn Boyd
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GALLERY
ROCK ART OF THE LOWER PECOS CANYONLANDS
Above: The panel at Rattlesnake Canyon reveals the complexity of Pecos River style images and the challenges of recording and interpretation. (Photograph courtesy of Jean Clottes)
Large rock shelters such as this one above at Cedar Springs provided both refuge and limestone canvases for documenting pictographic narratives. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Above: Eagle Nest Canyon in Langtry, Texas. (Photograph courtesy of Nataliya Chemayeva.)
Above and below: Parida Cave is located along the Rio Grande and houses deeply stratified deposits, as well as Pecos River style rock art. In the late 1800s this site was referred to as Parida Cave Station and served as a railroad stop for passengers traveling across the country on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Although now only accessible by boat, once inside the shelter’s expansive interior visitors can take advantage of more than 300 feet of designated trails. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Halo Shelter is located in tributary canyon of the Devils River. Pecos River style pictographs painted in red, yellow, black, and white span almost 100 feet along the wall of this shelter. This photograph represents the best preserved portion of the mural. (Photograph courtesy of Jean Clottes).
Vaquero Shelter is located in Seminole Canyon State Park and contains wonderful examples of Historic Period rock art. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Anthropomorphs standing with their arms in a “stick ‘em up” position are characteristic of Red Monochrome paintings. This anthropomorph is wearing a single feather headdress and is wielding a recurved bow. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
DStretch, which uses decorrelation stretch, significantly enhances photographs of badly faded images. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Bold Line Geometric imagery is characterized by bold geometric lines forming zigzag patterns and small human and insect-like figures, as shown here from Parida Cave along the Rio Grande. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Fluidly painted, tiny Red Linear style figures convey a sense of movement and ceremony in this panel located in Presa Canyon. Each figure in this photograph is less than 5 inches tall. Males are portrayed with an erect phallus and women are sometimes portrayed wearing “skirts.” (Photograph courtesy of Rupestrian Cyberservices).
Most Pecos River style imagery is well beyond reach of the shelter floor. Use of scaffolding to paint the murals demonstrates a significant investment by ancient artists in time, effort and resources. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
This finely executed yellow and red Pecos River style anthropomorph from Halo Shelter is portrayed with a feather headdress and is wielding a staff. The small halo-like arch located just above the head of this figure is characteristic of many anthropomorphs at this site. Three vertical lines located on the forehead of the figure may represent tattooing. Note the claw- or pincher-like hands. Just below and to the right of this figure is an antlered anthropomorph with black dots on its antler tines. This is a recurring motif in Pecos River rock art. (Photograph courtesy of Jean Clottes).
Pecos River style rock art contains a vast array of enigmatic imagery. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
At almost 20 feet in height, this Pecos River style anthropomorph is one of the tallest figures in the Lower Pecos. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
This large Pecos River style anthropomorph with a U-shaped head stands more than 10 feet in height and is portrayed with various accoutrements. Associated with its right hand is an atlatl and spear and with its left hand spears, staff, and a datura power bundle. The right wrist is depicted with some type of adornment and suspended from the left elbow is something resembling a pouch. At its mid-section are waist tassels and at the hip are a cluster of possible feathers. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
White Pecos River style anthropomorphic figures are striking and this is no exception. It has a bird-like head and wrist adornment. Red lines are interspersed within the white body and a wide black band runs vertically down its center. This figure is especially interesting because it is holding two atlatls in its right hand and two staffs in its left.(Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Halo Shelter houses an unusual two-legged Pecos River style feline with piloerection (hair standing on end). The wavy lines coming out of its mouth may represent speech or breath. The solid red line being emitted out of its nose may represent blood or a stream of mucous, both of which have been reported as a potential side-effect of trance states induced through extreme physical exertion or the use of some hallucinogenic plants. (Photograph courtesy of Jean Clottes).
The antler tines of many antlered anthropomorphs found in Pecos River style rock art are tipped with black dots. The black dots represent the sacramental plant, peyote. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Illustration of a Huichol yarn painting portraying the birth of peyote from the antlers and body of the Great Deer in Wirikúta. In Huichol religion, peyote and deer are an inseparable sacred symbol. Yarn painting by Chavelo González de la Cruz. (Illustration by Carolyn Boyd, courtesy of Texas A&M University Press).
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3D photographic model produced using Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry of the mural at White Shaman Shelter. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
Using a Dino-Lite handheld digital microscope, Boyd photographs a small section of the White Shaman mural to determine the order in which the paint was applied. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
In this microscopic photograph of a pea-sized section of the mural, the yellow paint can be seen overlying both the red and black paint and the red is over the black. This painting sequence held true throughout the entire mural. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
The White Shaman illustration was produced digitally using Adobe Photoshop on a Wacom Cintiq Interactive Pen Display. A separate layer was created in Photoshop for each figure and each color. In other words, if a figure is composed of three colors, it was reproduced according to its original painting sequence in three separate layers. The final rendering shown here is the combination of over 200 digital layers. (Illustration by Carolyn Boyd, courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center)
A winged, antlered anthropomorph with dots attached to its antler tines is part of a large, polychromatic composition at Fate Bell Shelter in Seminole Canyon State Park. (Photograph courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center).
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Editor’s Note
Did you like this article? You may be interested in reading more about the White Shaman mural in Carolyn Boyd’s award-winning book, The White Shaman Mural.
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It was an almost desperate race against time. On one side was the ocean, its relentless incoming and outgoing tides beating and constantly reshaping the beach, as any ocean would do. On the opposite side were the overlying cliffs, the erosion of which through time helped to expose a series of small hollows, what appeared to be human footprints, on an ancient beach surface dated hundreds of thousands of years into the past. This team of scientists knew they had only a short window of time to observe and record them before the elements erased the hollows back into oblivion.
“When we first saw them, we were in a state of initial disbelief, but once we’d ruled out all the other possibilities we were utterly amazed that, first, they survived, and second, that we happened to be there during the few days that they were exposed,” said Nick Ashton, a curator with the British Museum for over 25 years. Ashton is also the Director of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project (AHOB) funded by the Leverhulme Trust. He has been directing the oceanside Happisburgh Paleolithic excavations, where these footprint finds were located. The site has yielded evidence of a human presence as far back as 800,000 years ago, and the footprints tell a story of humans who may have walked this place even more anciently.
But Ashton and his team faced a serious challenge. Their task to initially examine and document them could only be measured in a few weeks, if not days.
“The first problem was mobilizing a team to record them,” said Ashton. “But Sarah Duffy from York University stepped into the breach, coming down at short notice to record them using multi-image photogrammetry.” Duffy is an archaeologist with specialized expertise in digital imaging techniques as they apply to archaeology.
“The weather was foul,” he added. “We couldn’t get down to the beach until just after 5 pm just as it started to lash with rain. Heavy seas meant that there were only 3-4 hours in which to record them, but first we had to remove the beach sand that had accumulated since the last tide and remove the excess water from the hollows. As Sarah started the recording we were continually using sponges to remove the persistent rain-water. By this time the light was fading, despite being May and I really had little faith in the technique working. We eventually left the beach cold, wet and somewhat demoralized. However, the results were stunning.”
Above and below: Area A (which includes the hollows/footprints) at Happisburgh from cliff top looking south. (Photo: Martin Bates).
The imaging showed that the hollows were elongated, like the shape of a foot, and the majority of them fell within the range previously determined through paleoanthropological research as juvenile to adult hominin foot sizes. “In many cases, the arch and front/ back of the foot can be identified and in one case the impression of toes can be seen,” write Ashton and colleagues in their more recent research report.*
Moreover, further study indicated that they were dealing not with just one individual, but a group of perhaps five individuals of mixed ages — perhaps an adult and several children. And whoever they were, they were apparently moving in a southerly direction along mudflats of an ancient estuary of a tidally-influenced river.
But perhaps the biggest find had to do with age. The ancient laminated silt layers in which the footprints were found were directly associated with ancient laminated silt layers and lag gravels that had already been dated nearby. Artifacts, flora and fauna found within those layers helped to pinpoint the age range.
“An artefact assemblage has been recovered from these lag gravels, consisting of flint flakes, flake tools and cores. The sediments also contain a rich assemblage of fauna and flora which suggest that the archaeological evidence can be attributed to the later part of an interglacial. This interglacial is dated on the basis of biostratigraphical and palaeomagnetic evidence to the latter part of the Early Pleistocene, perhaps MIS 21 or MIS 25,” reported Ashton and colleagues.*
In other words, the footprints, according to Ashton and his research team, are dated to between ca. 1 and 0.78 million years ago.
The finding was astounding. This meant that this was the oldest known hominin footprint surface outside of Africa. It pushedthe record of human occupation of northern Europe back by at least 350,000 years.
The footprints have become a major a milestone in a series of discoveries beginning in 2000 at this location, named after the nearby village of Happisburgh on the coast of eastern England.
“The first evidence of Palaeolithic archaeology was a handaxe found by a local person walking their dog (Mike Chambers),” said Ashton. “Although this dates to 500,000 years ago, it led to further fieldwork and the discovery of ‘Site 3’ dating to 800,000 years old and subsequently the footprints.”
Happisburgh has been found to feature a remarkable concentration of Early Stone Age, or Lower Palaeolithic, sites that were buried in time under glacial sediments and subsequently exposed in time as a result of coastal erosion. Thus far, excavations have revealed numerous artifacts as well as butchered large mammal bones and other biological remains across five identified sites, tell-tale signs of a human presence during a cool climatic period around 500,000 years ago and earlier. At “Site 3”, the location of the recently discovered footprints, about 80 stone tools have been uncovered during large scale excavations from 2005 to 2010. Studies have shown that this area was once the location of an ancient river channel. The river was the ancestral river of the current Thames which, hundreds of thousands of years ago, flowed into the North Sea 150 kilometres north of its present day estuary.
Research on the plant and animal remains recovered from the site have afforded archaeologists and other scientists the opportunity to reconstruct the climate and environment of the area as it existed more than half a million years ago, at the time the artifact-bearing sediments were deposited. They found that these early humans occupied the area during a cooling period when a conifer woodland was predominant:
From palynological analysis of adjoining sediments, the local vegetation consisted of a mosaic of open coniferous forest of pine (Pinus), spruce (Picea), with some birch (Betula). Alder (Alnus) was growing in wetter areas and there were patches of heath and grassland. This vegetation is characteristic of the cooler climate typically found at the beginning or end of an interglacial or during an interstadial period….*
To date, no human fossil bones have been excavated at Site 3 or any of the other four sites. But now, analysis of the footprints, combined with current knowledge about early human occupation of Europe, are providing some clues about who these people were and how they might fit into the developing landscape of the first humans in the European geographic arena.
The researchers measured a total of 152 hollows/footprints, indicating a preponderance of elongated forms and shapes, form features and measurements that suggested they were made by perhaps 5 individual humans of varying size and age. Foot size yielded estimates of height. Most significantly, the dimensions seem to fit neatly into the range identified through previous studies and archaeological investigations as attributed to an early human form that is known to have occupied Europe during the Middle Pleistocene.
“Overall the estimated foot size, foot area and stature of the Happisburgh hominins correspond with the estimates for Homoantecessor,” report Ashton, et.al.*
Homo antecessor (or H. antecessor) — the name derives from landmark human fossil discoveries made at the archaeological cave sites of Gran Dolina and Sima del Elefante at the Sierra de Atapuerca mountain in northern Spain. There, archaeologists Eudald Carbonell, Juan Luis Arsuaga and J. M. Bermúdez de Castro discovered fossil evidence of an extinct human species that lived between 800,000 to 1.2 million years ago. Carbonell and his colleagues estimate that the adult H. antecessor stood about 1.6-1.8 m (5½-6 feet) tall, similar to the recent estimates from Happisburgh (ca. 0.93 for the juvenile and 1.73 m for the adult), and weighed roughly 90 kg (200 pounds). Their brain sizes are estimated to be 1,000–1,150 cm³, smaller than the 1,350 cm³ average for modern humans. But because the fossil evidence is comparatively scarce, little else is known about the physiology of this ancient human species. To date, these sites are the only locations where fossilized remains of the species have been found, but the finds have interjected a new chapter in the developing picture of human evolution and the advent of early humans (hominins) on the European subcontinent.
So now, Happisburgh adds yet another discovery to the mix: H. antecessor, or something like it, occupied the northern parts of Europe, or at least the region today known as the UK, as much as 1 million years ago.
Walking the Beach
The evidence thus far could present an intriguing, albeit incomplete picture of what could be going on in this place so long ago. Informed by the findings and what he already knows about the prehistory of the area and the interdisciplinary science thus far applied to human beginnings in this part of the world, Ashton paints a hypothetical picture:
“We appear to be dealing with a small family group walking along the muddy fringes of an estuary perhaps 10 to 15 miles from the coast. It would be nice to imagine that they’re pausing in their walk to collect shell fish, crabs and possibly seaweed. Around would have been the grassy floodplain, grazed by deer, horse and bison together with more exotic animals such as rhino, hippo and elephant. In the distance coniferous forest would have dominated the surrounding hills.”
With more work, this picture could become much larger with greater detail. But time is of the essence. As Ashton reports:
The rarity of such evidence is equalled only by its fragility at Happisburgh, where severe coastal erosion is both revealing and rapidly destroying sites that are of international significance. The pre-glacial succession around Happisburgh has now revealed several archaeological locations of Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene age with evidence of flint artefacts, cut-marked bones and footprints. Importantly, the sites are associated with a rich environmental record of flora and fauna allowing detailed reconstructions of the human habitats and the potential for preservation of organic artefacts. Continuing erosion of the coastline will reveal further exposures of the HHF and new sites, which promise to transform our understanding of the earliest human occupation of northern latitudes.*
“We’ll be continuing to work in the area as new information is revealed every time we visit,” he says. “Over the years we have built up a team of local people who walk the beaches on a far more regular basis and are excellent at reporting back any new discoveries, whether these be new sediments, artifacts or fossil bones.”
Dr Nick Ashton, British Museum at the Happisburgh site. Dr Ashton is the Co-Director of the Happisburgh Project and the British Museum’s curator of the Palaeolithic collections. Photo: Happisburgh Project
Julie Masis is a freelance journalist based in Cambodia. Her stories have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Science magazine and in other publications.
Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia—Dozens of crates with ziplock bags populate the back room of a new museum near an Angkorian temple on the Thailand border. Each bag is carefully labeled in black marker, with the date and location of the artifact contained within. I can’t read Khmer, but I can see that many of the bags are marked with “2013” on them.
Acting Museum Director Seng Kompheak takes out a piece of pottery. “It looks like the face of a monkey because of the big ears,” he says.
From another bag, he removes a small stone object and turns it over—it’s a stamp depicting an image of a crocodile. “We had never seen this. It looks like a prehistoric tool,” he adds.
A large, partly broken jar rests on the table. “It was probably a burial jar,” Kompheak says, “because it has a small hole drilled in the bottom.”
These are some of the objects that will go on display at the Samdech Decho Hun Sen Eco-Global Museum of Preah Vihear, which is expected to open in early 2014. Named after, and funded in part by, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, the museum is dedicated to Cambodia’s second UNESCO World Heritage Site: the mountaintop temple, Prasat Preah Vihear, situated on the border between Thailand and Cambodia. It is an imposing structure, originally built to command a prominent place atop a 525-metre (1,722 ft) cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains during the reign of the Khmer Empire in the 11th-12th centuries C.E. Dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, it was known as “Shikareshvara” in Angkorian times.
Thailand and Cambodia have long disputed the ancient temple and the land surrounding it. In 1962, the Hague-based International Court of Justice ruled that the temple belongs to Cambodia—a decision some Thai nationalists did not accept. Fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces sparked up here in 2008 and in 2011, inflicting damage on the eleventh-century temple, which was hit by mortar and artillery shells. The Thais argued that, while the International Court of Justice ruled that the temple belongs to Cambodia, Thailand was not clear as to who owns the land around the ancient monument. To clarify the misunderstanding, the Court issued its final decision in November 2013, giving Cambodia sovereignty over the land around the temple, and ordering Thailand to withdraw its military from the area.
Located 500 km from Cambodia’s capital, the Preah Vihear Temple has long been inaccessible. Partly because of its remote location, Preah Vihear was among the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge—civil war ended here only in 1998, and the area is still heavily mined. French colonial archaeologists couldn’t learn much about the site because of the land dispute with Thailand, according to Christiane Garnero Morena, a UNESCO expert who worked on the museum. It’s now impossible to get to the temple from the Thai side. The border has been closed since 2008, and visitors with Thai passports aren’t allowed to approach the temple.
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The Preah Vihear Temple straddles the border between Thailand and Cambodia
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Above and below: Today, scaffolding is a visible reminder that Cambodian authorities are focusing efforts to manage and develop the site. Photo by Julie Masis
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Perhaps because Preah Vihear Province has remained inaccessible to archaeologists, there’s a wealth of undiscovered history here. In the last five years, while digging trenches and building barricades, Cambodian soldiers came across dozens of Angkorian artifacts. The conscious effort on the part of the Cambodian government to develop the area for tourism has also helped; historic items were unearthed during road construction, or were returned to officials after villagers heard that a museum was being built.
“More than 500 pieces were found in the last few years,” said Pheng Sanoeun, director of the Department of Monuments and Archaeology at Cambodia’s National Authority for Preah Vihear. “We don’t count every single artifact. We are not interested in the number of pieces. We are interested in the pieces that give us new information.”
“The items were most likely left behind by the people who built the temple approximately a thousand years ago,” he added. Construction of the Preah Vihear Temple began in the ninth century, and lasted more than 200 years.
According to Philippe Delanghe, the culture specialist at UNESCO’s office in Phnom Penh, some of these newly discovered ceramics are considered extremely valuable or unique. Angkorian specialists are particularly puzzled by a small clay jar with holes in the lid. It may have been used for a medicinal purpose, as the holes would let vapor out.
“I have never seen a stamp with a picture of a crocodile on the bottom or a lid with many tiny holes in it,” said archaeologist Ea Darith, who wrote his PhD thesis on Angkorian ceramics.
Getting there
After almost four years of working as a journalist in Cambodia, Preah Vihear was the last important tourist attraction I hadn’t visited.
I was discouraged by Google Maps, according to which the easiest way to reach the temple is from Thailand, and by the Lonely Planet Cambodia travel guide, which notes that “the poor state of the roads, especially in the wet season, turns any trip up to Prasat Preah Vihear into something of a trek.” The guide also states that the accommodations in Sra Em, the closest village to the temple, are “rudimentary,” and “both uncomfortable and filthy.”
It happened, however, that this information was outdated. A new road has been built recently, shortening the trip between Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is located) and Preah Vihear Temple to only three or four hours. Moreover, at least three new hotels—with 24-hour electricity and air conditioning—have opened in Sra Em, which is about 30 minutes from the temple.
Despite the improvements, not many tourists make the trip—and the journey along the almost deserted National Highway 67 to Preah Vihear Temple is still an adventure.
About halfway between Siem Reap and Preah Vihear lies the dusty town of Anlong Veng, the former Khmer Rouge stronghold that gives the impression that war ended only yesterday. Stray dogs wander along the town’s only street. Once darkness falls at 6 pm, people use flashlights to see where they’re going. There are no restaurants serving Western food, hotel workers don’t speak English, and children stare at foreigners as if they were exotic animals at a zoo.
We spent the night in Anglong Veng, and the next day took a “taxi” to Sra Em. It was not a pleasant ride: in typical Cambodian fashion, there were two passengers in the driver’s seat, five people in the back, and one in the trunk. The driver, sporting very long, curvy fingernails, answered his phone constantly, yet somehow managed to narrowly avoid collisions with cows and oncoming trucks. At one point we came to a broken bridge—one side of it was on the same level as the road, but the other came down at an almost 45 degree angle. Not stopping to inspect the structure, overloaded vehicles—including ours—simply drove across, assuming it would hold. All we could do was close our eyes and pray.
The museum
The museum of Preah Vihear wasn’t officially open to the public when I visited at the end of October 2013—but the director greeted me at the entrance with his entire entourage and spent about two hours showing me around.
A pair of recently unearthed pieces of sandstone from Preah Vihear Temple guard the entrance—the ancient sculptor may have intended to turn them into lions, Kompheak said, although it’s hard to tell now.
A map on the wall illustrates the dimensions of the Khmer Empire, which once stretched from southern Vietnam to Thailand, Myanmar and parts of Malaysia. Another showcases the locations of Angkorian temples and how they were connected by ancient roads. One such road led from Angkor Wat to Preah Vihear—which, in Angkorian times, was called Shikareshvara —and from there to Wat Phu, in Laos. Along these royal roads, the kings of Angkor built the so-called “houses of fire” every 15 km—places where people stopped to pray and rest after a half-day’s journey, according to Kompheak. The rulers of Angkor also built 102 “houses for the sick”—hospitals—along these routes.
When this museum opens, visitors will first see the statues of two life-sized kneeling attendants, which were returned to Cambodia in the summer of 2013 from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, after museum authorities learned that the statues had been looted. More recently, a third ancient sculpture depicting Duryodhana, a Khmer warrior, will be displayed here as well — An American court determined in December that the statue, worth more than $2 million, should be returned. All three statues originally came from the Koh Ker temple complex in Preah Vihear Province.The statues show deities in motion, and are among the best that the Khmer empire produced, according to experts.
“Hopefully, more sculptures will come back to the country in the future,” Delanghe said.
To prevent further looting, on their own, authorities proactively removed several important works from the Preah Vihear Temple. One of these is a walking lion, which was brought to the museum from Preah Vihear Temple three months ago. “It’s an unusual lion,” Kompheak says. “In Khmer art lions are almost always standing, while this one is in motion.” Another is a sculpture of the Hindu god Vishnu, who holds an object in each of his four arms, symbolizing wind, fire, earth, and water. Finally, Kompheak shows me a door lintel from the temple, with images of cows and buffalos. Behind the sculpture, visitors can see cut marks. According to Kompheak, they were made by looters who tried to carry away the stone but couldn’t because it was too heavy.
The second museum building exhibits huge photographs of some animal species unique to Preah Vihear Province—including the critically endangered giant ibis, Cambodia’s national bird, and the kouprey, the country’s national mammal—a wild ox that’s on the verge of extinction from hunting and diseases introduced by domesticated cattle. There are also pictures of a peacock with a beautiful azure tail, a red-headed vulture, several species of frogs, and a southern serow, which Kompheak says is a goat-like herbivorous animal whose skin and bone powder are mixed with coconut juice or rice wine and used in traditional Cambodian medicine.
Around the museum, workers planted local trees, and labeled each one. The sap of one tree can be used to waterproof the bottom of boats and baskets, Kompheak explains. Another local variety was used to make wooden statues in the post-Angkorian period.
The idea behind the exhibits on flora and fauna is to create a link between Angkorian history and Cambodia’s natural environment—which also links the past to the present, according to UNESCO experts.
“Many museums have beautiful artifacts, but they are not connected to the location that they came from,” Garnero Morena said. “This museum is completely different from other Cambodian museums because there is no other museum in Cambodia that links ancient history to the present day.”
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Above and below: Two recent finds awaiting display in the new museum. Photos by Julie Masis
The Eco-Global Museum of Preah Vihear is also the first in Cambodia to have an exhibit on an ethnic minority group.
The display focuses on the Kuay, who have lived in Preah Vihear Province since the days of Angkor, and were intimately connected to the royal court. Because of their skills in iron smelting and domesticating wild elephants, the Kuay supplied the kings of Angkor with weapons and war elephants, according to Gérard Diffloth, another UNESCO expert who helped prepare the exhibit.
“The Kuay used to be iron smelters, extracting the ore from nearby hills and smelting it at very high temperatures to obtain iron ingots. This is high technology, using only traditional tools: bamboo, bellows made from buffalo-hides, and special charcoal,” Diffloth wrote in an email. “The technique is ancient, and was borrowed from India in ancient times. The Kuay had a monopoly on this industry, and the Khmer never took part in it.”
The museum places the Kuay villagers’ everyday items on display: mats and water containers from palm leaves, bamboo benches, and the monks’ palm-leaf manuscripts. These manuscripts, created using metal, string, and charcoal, were probably first used in the thirteenth century when Buddhism arrived, Kompheak said. There is also a display of big baskets that the present-day Kuay people wear on their heads during a rain-prayer ceremony that marks their New Year celebrations. The last item that caught my attention was a modern-looking hand-made toy: a cart made from a cut-up flip-flop (sandal) and a discarded plastic bottle.
“It’s very important to link the people who live here today with their history,” Garnero Morena said.
An uneasy presence
I couldn’t help but notice that one important piece of modern history was missing from the museum: the conflict with Thailand, and the dispute over who owns this ancient Angkorian site. While all the information in the museum is provided in three languages: English, French (Cambodia is a former French colony), and Khmer—there is no Thai translation.
“We don’t want to remind (visitors) about the war. It’s not good,” Kompheak said.
But, while war is never mentioned in the museum, it continues to affect the ancient temple and the lives of the people around it. In the past five years, due to fighting near the border, authorities relocated the residents of three communities near the Preah Vihear Temple—more than 1,200 families in all. This allowed government officials to expand the protection zone around the temple—now 10 by 20 km. One village, called Kor Muy, had actually been built on an ancient reservoir. Authorities have since refilled the reservoir with water and hope to conduct excavations to determine how big the ancient village was, and how many people lived there.
As we raced along the new, completely deserted road on our way from the museum to the temple, my eyes unconsciously scanned the landscape for ditches to roll into in case shooting broke out. We passed a village of identical houses with bright roofs: homes for the soldiers’ wives, we were told. At one point, we saw a tank coming toward us. Even our motorbike driver was a soldier. Since the village of Sra Em seemed to be cut off from the rest of the world, we questioned him about news at the border.
“Was it safe to visit the temple today?” we asked.
He said he didn’t know.
Tickets to the temple are free but required: foreign visitors must show their passports. Since there are no such regulations at any other Angkorian site in Cambodia, I could only imagine that the ticket was a safety measure: if something went wrong, authorities would know who was injured or killed. After the ticket booth, the ascent to the temple, which towers 625 m above sea level, became so steep that it could only be managed by the use of motorbikes with good brakes and four-wheel drive trucks.
On the top, I snapped photos of the out-of-breath Cambodian soldiers in camouflage uniforms — they had just hiked up the mountain with live turkeys in their arms. It appeared they were getting ready for lunch.
The temple itself surprised me. While I had seen it countless times on Cambodia’s 2,000 riel banknote—the equivalent of about 50 cents—it turned out that it was not one structure, but many pavilions stretched over 800 m, connected by steep stairs and a stone-paved road. The climb, under the scorching sun in the middle of the afternoon, made me stop several times to catch my breath.
Cambodian soldiers are a frequent presence at the temple complex remains. Photo by Julie Masis
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Unanswered questions
Much remains to be uncovered and learned about the ancient site. Among other items recently found in the area—soon to be on display at the new museum—are a small bronze figurine of a female deity that was unearthed during the construction of a military base, a tiny bottle that may have been used to hold perfume—returned from the military during a training seminar on ceramics conservation—an urn that held someone’s ashes, and a jar that was used as an oil lamp. The oil lamp is also an unusual find: according to Sanoeun, very few Angkorian oil lamps had been found—and generally only near royal palaces—so finding one at Preah Vihear indicates that the area was important during the Angkorian period.
Archaeologists also discovered thirteenth century Chinese ceramics, which suggests that the people who lived in Preah Vihear had trade ties with China. The researchers’ goal is to gain more knowledge, not only about the temple, but about the daily lives of the people from the communities that surrounded it hundreds of years ago.
“This is very important for us because we know that Preah Vihear was a very important site during the Angkorian period, but we don’t know too much (about it) because we don’t have many researchers working on that,” Sanoeun said.
One intriguing unanswered question relates to its location. Australian archaeologist Damian Evans, a Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Sydney who has led extensive research related to Angkor, is puzzled about how it was connected to the ancient Khmer capital. According to research conducted by his archaeologist colleague Mitch Hendrickson, who has examined artificial earth embankments and ancient bridges, the royal Angkorian highway led from Angkor to Wat Phu in Laos – but passed 40 kilometers away from the Preah Vihear temple. Angkorians also used rivers for transportation, but there are no rivers of suitable size near the Temple, according to Evans.
So how was the Preah Vihear Temple connected to Angkor Wat?
The answer might be found with technology.
To recreate maps of Angkorian cities, Evans and his team used LiDAR equipment, a technology that employed laser beams that bounced back to them, much like radar, to map small variations in altitude at Angkor, including Phnom Kulen, another old Khmer capital. Since Angkorian roads and streets were built higher than the surrounding rice fields to prevent flooding during the rainy season, they were able to map the ancient city blocks. To conduct this study, they flew back and forth over the ancient sites in a helicopter with their laser equipment.
But undertaking a similar study in Preah Vihear province, although very interesting, may not be possible in the current political climate. “We could definitely locate the existence of minor roads in the area using LiDAR, but that is not going to happen any time soon,“ says Evans. “To fly an aircraft low and slow over the disputed area would require a tremendous amount of planning and international cooperation at the very highest levels on both sides of the border – and I don’t think it’s feasible just for the purposes of archaeology, if at all in the current political climate.”
For now, it is a matter of waiting. In the meantime, Cambodian heritage authorities will continue to do what they can to raise the profile of the mountaintop temple as yet another gem in their cultural landscape.
On a clear day, standing on the summit of this mound, one can see as far as the hills of Nazareth and Mount Tabor to the west, and major parts of the East Bank in Jordan. Today, it is a place where visitors can catch a commanding view of the countryside. For the ancients, thousands of years ago, it was an ideal location, situated as it was at the crossroads of trade routes, nestled within a rich and fertile natural environment that afforded robust commerce and agricultural production. Thus it is no wonder that people settled here so long ago. The evidence of their lives in this place go back as far as 3200 B.C.E—perhaps even earlier.
Those familiar with the location call it Tell Abu al-Kharaz, which means “the Mound of the Father of the Beads”. No longer occupied, it is an archaeological site, about 4 km east of the Jordan river in the Central Jordan Valley. Sometimes identified as the biblical Jabesh Gilead and as the burial site of King Saul, it can be counted among many such sites found within the borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
But this one drew some special attention in the press.
“We have evidence that culture from present Europe is represented in Tell Abu al-Kharaz,” stated excavations Director Peter Fischer of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in a press release.* What he means, of course, is ANCIENT Europe, and more particularly the cultures of the Aegean, ancient Cyprus, and what historians have often referred to as the Sea Peoples—a people thought to have originated in either western Anatolia or southern Europe, and more specifically the Aegean Sea region, and who journeyed by sea across the eastern Mediterranean and colonized Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus, and Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age, well over 3,000 years ago.
Fischer has been directing the excavations here since 1989, now accompanied by Assistant Director Teresa Bürge of the University of Vienna. Their team has thus far uncovered the remains of a city that reached florescence three times over 5,000 years, featuring numerous structures, city walls and artifacts that tell a story of a fortified settlement spanning periods in the Early Bronze Age (3200 – 2900 B.C.E.), some new evidence of the Middle Bronze Age (2100 – 1550 B.C.E.), the Late Bronze Age (1600 – 1300 B.C.E.), and into and beyond the Iron Age (1200 – 600 B.C.E.).
“There is also evidence of post-Iron Age settlements, especially from Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Mamluk periods,” report Fischer and Bürge.** But the comparatively sparse evidence for these later periods, to date, stand in stark contrast to that found for earlier periods.
View of Tell Abu al-Kharaz. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and the University of Gothenburg
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The Iron Age Compound
The most sensational discovery emerged in 2009, when they encountered something unexpected. While cleaning and consolidating city walls to create a 3-dimensional reconstruction of the city’s defense system,
“the tops of the walls of an almost square structure, 4.4 by 4.2 meters in size (the outer dimensions), built on top of the Middle/Late Bronze Age city walls and protruding southwards, was exposed. This structure – later named Room 2 – turned out to be part of a particularly well-preserved architectural compound from the early Iron Age. The compound yielded numerous primary contexts, hundreds of complete pottery finds, tools, jewellery, and plenty of vessels containing well-preserved organic remains which were used for radiocarbon dating. As a result of these exceptional findings, the compound, which was destroyed during a catastrophic event, was further exposed from 2010 to 2012.”**
What they eventually uncovered was a multi-roomed, two-storey compound structure incorporated into the Iron Age city wall and measuring 60 meters in length with some of the walls still standing as much as 2.5 meters high. Dated to about 1100 B.C.E., it featured cells of square, standardized rooms with 3 by 3 meter dimensions, with nine pairs of rooms connected by standardized .6 by .75 meter wide doorways preserved to about 1.25 meters in height. (See image below.) The excavation debris indicated that its now-collapsed upper storey was constructed of mudbrick reinforced with wooden beams, twigs and straw. Excavation showed clear evidence that the ancients used the older Early Bronze Age wall to help provide a foundation to support the later Early Iron Age construction of the compound.
Reconstruction of Iron Age I two-storey compound (total length 46 m; reconstructed by M. Al-Bataineh). Courtey Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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The Iron Age I compound from above. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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The Iron Age I compound with 21 rooms exposed (46 m x 8 m). Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg.
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Iron Age I pottery found in situ in one of the compound rooms. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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An exposed room of the Iron Age I compound showing 2.5 m high walls preserved. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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Room 21 of the compound (the only room with a dividing wall) containing a clay-built grain silo. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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The Early Iron Age structures were built by the ancients upon the Early Bronze Age city wall (between red arrows). Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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“The architectural layout of the stone-walled spaces,” write Fischer and Bürge in their report, “gives a strong impression of centrally supervised town planning because of the standardized size of the rooms and entrances.”**
The compound, they report, is a unique find in two big ways. First of all, the architectural layout, particularly the curious cell plan of the structure, sets it apart from anything else they have found at the site. Moreover, “there is nothing like this structure in the immediately preceding Late Bronze Age Phase VIII or earlier Late Bronze Age phases at the site,” report Fischer and Bürge. “This specific architectural layout is also unique for the Transjordanian Jordan Valley or the remainder of Jordan in the early Iron Age.”** Secondly, a significant proportion of the artifacts found within the rooms, many of which were remarkably well-preserved, showed characteristics quite distinct from the standard Canaanite ware and assemblage that otherwise typified the site.
Clues to Foreign Connections
Among the artifact assemblages found within the compound cells were objects, as Fischer and Bürge describe, “which are exotic in comparison to the standard early Iron Age Canaanite repertoire.”** Those objects included finds like white-slipped vessels, such as a Philistine-style bowl standing on three loop handles, Philistine-style pilgrim flasks with cup-mouths, smaller flasks and a bichrome-decorated jug with a double handle clearly from Phoenicia, double pyxis with false spouts and basket handles—a type of ware found in the Aegean—alabaster vessels made of raw material that was imported, and a beautifully decorated Aegean/Philistine-style jug.
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Early Iron Age Aegean/Philistine-style jug. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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Early Iron Age Phoenician import. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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Early Iron Age pilgrim flask. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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Phoenician-imported pilgrim flask. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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Were these finds made or brought by immigrants from Philistia, Phoenicia, or the Aegean?
Fischer and Bürge think it’s a real possibility, although they fully realize that there are other, equally tenable explanations.
“Even though the number of imports is considerable, all of these objects could be dismissed – if one insisted on doing so – on a variety of grounds as conventional imports which found their way to Tell Abu Kharaz by trade, and without their owners necessarily being associated with the homeland of these finds,” they state in their report.**
In the same breath, however, they point to other finds. “There are, however, groups of finds – unattractive as they may appear, but of vital importance to any society – which actualize the question of the ethnic origin of their owners, namely cooking pots, other plain-ware vessels used on a daily basis and textile production tools,” they write.** These were cooking pots of the characteristic closed-end style more typical of Philistia and the Aegean, and spool-shaped loom weights that are classic to the Aegean………..and their numbers were significant enough to reasonably suggest that this place may have been occupied, at least briefly, by a group of immigrants from the west — Sea Peoples who made their way across the Aegean and/or perhaps eastward from Philistia or southward from or through Phoenicia. They conclude:
“We put forward the possible scenario that people (females?) of Eastern Mediterranean or Philistine ethnicity arrived at Tell Abu Haraz in the course of intermarriage with indigenous people. This would explain the presence of both Aegean/Philistine- and Canaanite-related objects in the same compound. A consequence of these possible scenarios is that local people and foreigners lived in symbiosis. Another possibility could be that the Aegean/Philistine elements are related to mercenaries or craftsmen and their families who served and worked at the site. In this case it is also obvious that they lived in symbiosis with the local population because of the mixed find contexts from the same compound.”**
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Aegean/Philistine-style cooking pot. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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For comparison, Canaanite-style cooking pot. Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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Loom weights of unfired clay: standard Canaanite-typ (left); spool-shaped Aegean-type (right). Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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For Fischer, it all has implications for developing a deeper understanding of the world that existed at this time in the ancient Levant.
“What surprises me the most is that we have found so many objects from far away. This shows that people were very mobile already thousands of years ago,” he says.*
Mysteries remain, and much work needs to be done before a more conclusive assessment can be made about Tell Abu al-Kharaz in general. The 2013 excavations unearthed, for example, a curious vessel, bichrome-decorated in red and black with large vertical handles and a pointed base (see photo below). Their preliminary research has come up with no clear parallels thus far. But one thing is certain………it is an import.
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Courtesy Peter M. Fischer and University of Gothenburg
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More information about Tell Abu al-Kharaz can be found at the project website.
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This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe. Find it on Amazon.com.
Effective March 1, 2014, Popular Archaeology Magazinepublishes its 14th issue as an ongoing, quarterly online publication specializing in archaeology and anthropology-related topics and discoveries. As in past issues, the March issue contains content written by journalists and leading experts in their fields, often about pioneering research or recent discoveries. Some of the articles, such as the piece related to the million-year-old ancient human footprints uncovered in the UK and the Staffordshire Hoard, touch on discoveries that made recent headlines. Others, though less visible in the popular press, present stories that feature equally fascinating discoveries and events.
Among the new articles published in this issue are the following:
The Mountain Temple of Angkor
Straddling a long-disputed border area, Cambodia’s remote ancient Preah Vihear temple slowly reveals its secrets.
A Taste for Wine
The evidence shows that wine was king in ancient Rome.
The Sea Peoples of the Transjordan
An archaeological site in Jordan yields significant signs of an ancient Mediterranean influence.
Drawing from the Past
Author and scholar Carolyn Boyd relates the discovery and meaning of the incredible rock art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands.
Footprints in the Silt
The startling discovery of million-year-old human footprints on a beach in the United Kingdom have scientists jumping.
Seeking Answers to an Ancient Mystery
Combining genetic and genealogical research, a young woman relates in her own words her remarkable personal journey through time to rediscover her ancient ancestry.
The Phaistos Disk: A New Approach, Part 6
What does this artifact, unearthed in Crete, have to do with Solomon’s Temple?
Conserving the Staffordshire Hoard
Conservators are unlocking the secrets of the incredible craftsmanship of an unprecedented Anglo-Saxon treasure.
Unearthing the Opulence
A recapture of the historic excavation of America’s iconic 18th century Governor’s Palace at Colonial Williamsburg.
Archaeologists are intensely engaged at an archaeological site known as Maryport on the northwest coast of England. Touted as the largest known Roman period civilian settlement along the Hadrian’s Wall frontier, geophysical surveys have revealed detailed information about the site, including lines of buildings, perhaps used as houses and shops, on either side of the excavated main street running from the north east gate of the ancient Roman fort.
In 2013, a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers excavated a section of the Roman road in the settlement, as well as buildings. They uncovered the outline of a building with a shop at the front and several rooms behind. They found various items including whetstones for sharpening blades and tools, glass beads and remains of pots for processing food. There is evidence pointing to a second floor, “probably where the shopkeeper and his family lived,” report the investigative team leadership. They plan to continue the excavations in 2014.
Said Nigel Mills of Hadrian’s Wall Trust: “We know very little about these civilian settlements because archaeologists have previously focused on the military aspects of the Roman frontier, excavating forts, milecastles and turrets.
“At Maryport we have an opportunity to look at what went on outside the fort and how soldiers and civilians interacted. We aim to excavate a complete building from where it fronted the main road through the settlement to the yards and work areas at the back. This year’s excavation will uncover more of the building and hopefully enable us to understand what it was used for.”
Later in the year the Senhouse Museum Trust and Newcastle University Roman Temples Project dig will take place at a different part of the site.
The Hadrian’s Wall frontier zone is part of the first transnational world heritage site – Frontiers of the Roman Empire – which includes the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German Limes. This represents the borderline of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched from the west coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast.
There were over 30 forts on the 150 mile Roman frontier across the north of England, including 16 along the line of the 73 mile wall itself plus coastal, outpost and supply forts. Along the wall there were around 80 milecastles and 160 turrets, a ditch to the north and the great defensive vallum earthwork to the south.
The excavations are an important step toward the establishment of a long-term program of archaeological research at Maryport, which is a key element in the development of Roman Maryport under a partnership between the Hadrian’s Wall Trust and the Senhouse Museum Trust.
For more information about becoming a volunteer on the settlement project dig contact Stephen Rowland [email protected].
Arrangements for schools and visitors to the excavations will be posted on the Hadrian’s Wall Trust’s website www.visithadrianswall.co.uk .
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Adapted and edited from a press release by Hadrian’s Wall Trust. ____________________________________________
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Known as the “Beringia Standstill” theory, it was first suggested by two Latin American geneticists in 1997 and then refined or corroborated by a University of Tartu research team in Estonia in 2007. From a sampling of mitrochondrial DNA from more than 600 Native Americans, they found that mutations in the DNA pointed to the likelihood that a group of their direct ancestors from Siberia was isolated from their Siberian origins for at least several thousand years, during the time period from 25,000 (if not earlier) to 15,000 years ago (when ice-free corridors developed), before their descendants moved into the Americas. Evidence from recent paleo-ecological research suggested that this isolation most likely occurred in Beringia, a land mass that once covered the present-day Bering Strait between northeast Asia and Alaska.
“A number of supporting pieces have fallen in place during the last decade, including new evidence that central Beringia supported a shrub-tundra region with some trees during the last glacial maximum and was characterized by surprisingly mild temperatures, given the high latitude,” said John Hoffecker of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, who is the lead author of a Perspective article appearing in the Feb. 28 issue of Sciencemagazine.
This is an important aspect within the overall geographic context of the area, as the last glacial maximum reached its peak about 21,000 years ago with the development of massive ice sheets across North America and Europe, essentially blocking access to North America from northeast Asia until about 15,000 years ago. Thus the ice sheet barrier, along with distance from Siberia, would have created a geographic basis for the gap suggested by the genetic data.
But combining the genetics with the recent paleoecological research, which involved analyzing fossil pollen, plant and insect material taken from sample sediment cores from the now submerged landscape, has been the key.
“The genetic record has been very clear for several years that the Native American genome must have arisen in an isolated population at least by 25,000 years ago, and the bulk of the migrants to the Americas really didn’t arrive south of the ice sheets until nearly 15,000 years ago,” said co-author and University of Utah anthropologist Dennis O’Rourke. “The paleoecological data, which I think most geneticists have not been familiar with, indicate that Beringia was not a uniform environment, and there was a shrub-tundra region, or refugium, that likely provided habitats conducive to continuous human habitation.”
Scott Elias, an article co-author and a professor with the the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, elaborated: “We believe that these ancestors survived on the shrub tundra of the Bering Land Bridge because this was the only region of the Arctic where any woody plants were growing. They needed the wood for fuel to make camp fires in this bitterly cold region of the world. They would have used dwarf shrub wood to get a small fire going, then placed large mammal bones on top of the fire, to ignite the fats inside the bones. Once burning, large leg bones of ice-age mammals would have burned for hours, keeping people alive through Arctic winter nights.”
On the genetic side of things, the theory that humans inhabited Beringia for as much as 10,000 years “helps explain how a Native American genome (genetic blueprint) became separate from its Asian ancestor,” said O’Rourke.
“At some point, the genetic blueprint that defines Native American populations had to become distinct from that Asian ancestry,” he explains. “The only way to do that was for the population to be isolated. Most of us don’t believe that isolation took place in Siberia because we don’t see a place where a population could be sufficiently isolated. It would always have been in contact with other Asian groups on its periphery.”
“But if there were these shrub-tundra refugia in central Beringia, that [would have] provided a place where isolation could occur” due to distance from Siberia, O’Rourke says.
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This map shows the outlines of modern Siberia (left) and Alaska (right) with dashed lines. The broader area in darker green (now covered by ocean) represents the Bering land bridge near the end of the last glacial maximum, a period that lasted from 28,000 to 18,000 years ago when sea levels were low and ice sheets extended south into what is now the northern part of the lower 48 states. University of Utah anthropologist Dennis O’Rourke argues in the Feb. 28 issue of the journal Science that the ancestors of Native Americans migrated from Asia onto the Bering land bridge or “Beringia” some 25,000 years ago and spent 10,000 years there until they began moving into the Americas 15,000 years ago as the ice sheets melted. Credit: Wlliam Manley, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado.
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In contrast to the genetic and paleoenvironmental evidence, however, the archaeological record has been lacking. This would be explained by the suggestion that, according to a number of scholars, the archaeological evidence was drowned under the rising sea levels that resulted in today’s geography of the region. “These shrub-tundra areas were likely refugia for a population that would be invisible archaeologically, since the former Beringian lowlands are now submerged,” maintains O’Rourke. The suggestion that rising sea levels subsequently covered the evidence of human migration into the Americas has also been a long-standing theory among researchers studying the model that advances the notion that early Native Americans moved south along the Pacific coast as the glaciers receded and sea levels rose.
In addition, Hoffecker suggests that the Beringia inhabitants during the last glacial maximum could have made successful hunting forays into the uninhabited steppe-tundra region to both the east and west of central Beringia, where drier conditions and more grass supported a plentiful array of large grazing animals, including steppe bison, horse and mammoth.
There is now solid evidence for humans in Beringia before the last glacial maximum, as geneticists first predicted in 1997, according to Hoffecker. After the maximum, there are two sets of archaeological remains dating to less than 15,000 years ago. “One represents a late migration from Asia into Alaska at that time,” he said. “The other has no obvious source outside Beringia and may represent the people who are thought to have sheltered on the land bridge during the glacial maximum. If we are looking for a place to put all of these people during the last glacial maximum, Beringia may be the only realistic option.”
Hoffecker, O’Rourke and colleagues say new archaeological sites must be found in Beringia if the long human layover there is to be confirmed. Although most such sites are presumed to be underwater, they are hopeful that some evidence of human habitation in shrub-tundra areas might remain above sea level in low-lying portions of Alaska and eastern Chukotka (in Russia).
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Source: Adapted and edited from press releases of the University of Colorado, Boulder, the University of Utah, and the University of London.
Cover Photo, Top Left: A photo of Alaska’s shrub tundra environment today showing birch shrubs in the foreground and spruce trees scattered around Eight Mile Lake, located in the foothills of the Alaska Range. Credit: Nancy Bigelow, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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Foraging patterns of modern human hunter-gatherers may provide clues to how ancient hominin (early human) ancestors foraged for food sources. One such modern pattern may have allowed these early hominins to explore further.
Called the “Lévy walk” pattern, it is characterized by mostly short steps with occasional long travels. Many animals also forage for food in this pattern. It facilitates finding unevenly-located resources without advance knowledge of resource distribution. David A. Raichlen and colleagues studied the behavior by observing 44 individuals of the Hadza hunter-gatherer people of Tanzania. They equipped them with GPS units and tracked their movements over 342 foraging activities from two camps through both dry and rainy seasons. What they found was that 42% of the foraging events resembled distributions of Lévy step lengths, or the distance traveled before pausing or turning more than 40 degrees. It confirms that some humans today follow the same foraging patterns when searching for food resources of unknown distribution.
Reports Raichlen, et. al, “Lévy walks may have become common early in our genus when hunting and gathering arose as a major foraging strategy, playing an important role in the evolution of human mobility.”*
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Around 60,000 years ago, in a small limestone cave in what is now central France, Neandertals dug a grave and laid an elderly member of their clan to rest. That is the picture emerging from the archaeological site that yielded the famous La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal skeleton in 1908, and it has important implications for understanding the behavior and cognitive capacity of our closest evolutionary relatives. Some archaeologists have long argued that a number of Neandertal sites preserve evidence of burials, a practice considered to be a key feature of modern human behavior. But critics have countered that the sites were excavated long ago using outmoded techniques that obscure the facts. (Scientific American)
In an announcement likely to rewrite the book on early colonization of the New World, two researchers today said they have discovered the oldest fortified settlement ever found in North America. Speaking at an international conference on France at Florida State University, the pair announced that they have located Fort Caroline, a long-sought fort built by the French in 1564. (Heritage Daily)
More than 50 archaeological finds, including skulls from Roman London, a Roman cremation pot, flint used by Londoners 9,000 years ago and items found in a suspected Black Death Plague burial ground are about to go on show at Crossrail’s site at Tottenham Court Road in London. (Culture 24)
Archaeologists have discovered a 900-year-old murder victim during a dig at the Scottish Seabird Centre in East Lothian. They found the skeleton of a young man dating from the 12th or 13th Centuries while investigating Kirk Ness, which was the site of a North Berwick church. Analysis revealed he was fatally stabbed four times in the back, twice in the left shoulder and in the ribs. The archaeologists said he was over the age of 20. (BBC News)
Robbed of its place in the annals of history by a series of earthquakes, the ancient city of Tralleis is set to regain some of its former glory with a number of restorations that are expected to bring in tourists. (Hurriyet Daily News)
Otzi the Iceman, Neanderthal specimens, a Denisovan and a Greenlandic Inuit and a hunter gatherer from Spain make up the small and ancient cast to have had their genomes sequenced. Now Richard III will join them, with Dr Turi King, of the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, set to analyse the hair, eyes and genetic fallibilities of the king found under a car park. (Culture24)
One of the issues of the Atapuerca sites that generates the most scientific debate is the dating of the strata where the fossils are found. A study has clarified that the sediment of Gran Dolina, where the first remains of Homo antecessor were discovered in 1994, is 900,000 years old. The findings at the Lower Palaeolithic cave site of Gran Dolina, in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountain range (Burgos), have led to major advancements in our knowledge of human evolution and occupation of Eurasia. (Science Daily)
As natural climatic shocks strike the world over, both historically and recently, the human reaction has followed an old pattern. Over and over again, according to a new study, disaster management efforts related to food shortages caused by climate shocks result in returning the conditions back to the way they were before the shortage, rather than addressing root causes or vulnerabilities. (Popular Archaeology)
The remnants of a rural settlement that was occupied for approximately two centuries during the Second Temple Period have been uncovered. The find was made during an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeological salvage excavation, before the start of work on a natural gas pipeline to Jerusalem as part of a national project directed by Israel Natural Gas Lines (INGL). (Heritage Daily)
ARCHAEOLOGISTS say they have discovered “an exceptional” burial site under an apartment building in Mexico City containing the remains of 12 dogs, animals that had a major religious and symbolic significance to the Aztec peoples of central Mexico.Experts with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, said in a statement on Friday that this is the first time a group of dogs has been found buried together.They have been found accompanying human remains or as part of an offering in a monument. (CourierMail)
An ancient Norse code which has been puzzling experts for years has been cracked by a Norwegian runologist – to discover the Viking equivalent of playful text messages. The mysterious jötunvillur code, which dates to 12th or 13th-century Scandinavia, has been unravelled by K Jonas Nordby from the University of Oslo, after he studied a 13th-century stick on which two men, Sigurd and Lavrans, had carved their name in both code and in standard runes. The jötunvillur code is found on only nine inscriptions, from different parts of Scandinavia, and has never been interpreted before. (The Guardian)
A tomb dating back to 1600 BC of a man called Neb, which is practically intact, sheds new light on the XVII dynasty of ancient Egypt. It is the important finding made by researchers with the Djehuty project, led by the Spanish superior council of scientific research (Csic) and carried out far north in the Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis in Luxor, ancient Thebes, sources with Csic told ANSAmed. (ANSAmed)
Archaeologists believe that markings scratched into the walls of a Scottish castle could be 700 years old. A team carrying out preservation work at Mingary Castle, on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, discovered the “graffiti” on plastered walls of the chapel. Some of the simple markings are thought to represent a ship and the first letter of someone’s name. (BBC News)
Assistant professor of geography and geosciences William Ouimet and Ph.D. student Katharine Johnson have successfully combined state-of-the-art remote sensing technology with their mutual appreciation of New England’s rich and varied history to uncover long-lost features beneath the forest canopy that covers the region. (UCONN)
As natural climatic shocks strike the world over, both historically and recently, the human reaction has followed an old pattern. Over and over again, according to a new study, disaster management efforts related to food shortages caused by climate shocks result in returning the conditions back to the way they were before the shortage, rather than addressing root causes or vulnerabilities.
“Exposures to climate challenges and other environmental risks are not the sole causes of disasters,” says Margaret Nelson, an ASU President’s Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. “People have unintentionally built vulnerabilities through decisions and actions in social, political and economic realms.”
Nelson made the comment at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago on February 16 as part of a team of four Arizona State University archaeologists. They are researching this as part of an international team examining how people can be most resilient to climate change when it comes to food security.
The research team used long-term archaeological and historical data from the North Atlantic Islands and the U.S. Southwest to form the basis of their understanding of changing dynamics in these areas. Each case in their study included information on evolving social, political and economic conditions over centuries, as well as climate data.
The extended timeframe and global scope allowed them to observe changes in the context of vulnerabilities and climate challenges on a broad scale. “The pattern is so consistent across different regions of the world experiencing substantially different climate shocks, that the role of vulnerability cannot be ignored,” she added.
Their findings support the argument for focusing on reducing vulnerabilities to climate shocks to boost resilience, which will ultimately lead to fewer required recovery efforts when crises occur.
Other ASU archaeologists involved in the study are professors Keith Kintigh, Michelle Hegmon and Kate Spielmann, all of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
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Called ‘Globetrotter’, the powerful technique has produced an interactive genetic roadmap to understanding how human population interbreeding has illucidated our ancestral connections and even uncovered human events previously undocumented in history.
Led by Dr. Garrett Hellenthal of the University College London Genetics Institute, a team of researchers has reconstructed the genetic mixing between each of 95 populations spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and South America over the last four thousand years. They did this by developing and applying a sophisticated statistical algorithmic approach to analyze the genomes (DNA) of 1,490 individuals in 95 populations around the world. The method relies on the fact that sections of DNA unique to a population “shrink” over time the farther one gets from the original breeding event; in other words, the smaller the DNA trace, the more ancient the admixture, or breeding event. With this method, Hellenthal and colleagues were able to identify as many as 100 admixture events across 160 generations over the last four millenia.
“DNA really has the power to tell stories and uncover details of humanity’s past,” said Dr Simon Myers of Oxford University’s Department of Statistics and Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, co-senior author of the study. The researchers were able to associate some of the admixture events with key historical periods and events, such as the rule of Alexander the Great. It has also shed light on ancient events and how humans were interacting during times and in places where there is currently no historical record of the interaction.
“Because our approach uses only genetic data, it provides information independent from other sources. Many of our genetic observations match historical events, and we also see evidence of previously unrecorded genetic mixing. For example, the DNA of the Tu people in modern China suggests that in around 1200 C.E., Europeans similar to modern Greeks mixed with an otherwise Chinese-like population. Plausibly, the source of this European-like DNA might be merchants travelling the nearby Silk Road.”
Throughout history, populations intermixed as groups of people migrated and empires and civilizations expanded. But until now, the actual timing of the interbreeding events that contributed to the genetic makeup of humans today has not been clear.
“What amazes me most is simply how well our technique works,” said Hellenthal. “Although individual mutations carry only weak signals about where a person is from, by adding information across the whole genome we can reconstruct these mixing events. Sometimes individuals sampled from nearby regions can have surprisingly different sources of mixing.”
“For example, we identify distinct events happening at different times among groups sampled within Pakistan, with some inheriting DNA from sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps related to the Arab Slave Trade, others from East Asia, and yet another from ancient Europe,” added Hellenthal. “Nearly all our populations show mixing events, so they are very common throughout recent history and often involve people migrating over large distances.”
“Each population has a particular genetic palette,” said Dr Daniel Falush of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, co-senior author of the study. “If you were to paint the genomes of people in modern-day Maya, for example, you would use a mixed palette with colours from Spanish-like, West African and Native American DNA. This mix dates back to around 1670 C.E., consistent with historical accounts describing Spanish and West African people entering the Americas around that time. Though we can’t directly sample DNA from the groups that mixed in the past, we can capture much of the DNA of these original groups as persisting, within a mixed palette of modern-day groups. This is a very exciting development.”
The detailed report is published in the 14 February 2014 issue of Science. Science is published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
See the interactive map for more information about specific populations.
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The research was funded by the Oxford University John Fell Fund, the National Institutes of Health (USA), the Wellcome Trust, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the joint Royal Society/Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellowship.
Edited and adapted from the University College London press release, Interactive map of human genetic history revealed.
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Genetic adaptations for life at high elevations found in residents of the Tibetan plateau likely originated around 30,000 years ago in peoples related to contemporary Sherpa. These genes were passed on to more recent migrants from lower elevations via population mixing, and then amplified by natural selection in the modern Tibetan gene pool, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University, published in Nature Communications on Feb. 10. (Popular Archaeology)
A trove of skulls and other body parts unearthed in the heart of London may have once belonged to Roman gladiators, war captives or criminals, a new study suggests. The remains, described in the January issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, belonged to about 40 men, mostly ages 25 to 35, and were marred by violence: cheek fractures, blunt-force trauma to the head, decapitation and injuries from sharp weapons, said study co-author Rebecca Redfern, a curator and bioarchaeologist at the Museum of London. (Live Science)
Archaeologists have located an astronomical observatory linked to sun worship in the Cerro de Coamiles site, one of the leading centres of Aztatlán (AD 850/900-1350 ) culture located in the central coast of Nayarit, Western Mexico. This discovery has helped define the importance astronomy had for the coastal boreal Mesoamerican. (Past Horizons)
The scattered pieces of a centuries-old female skull have been reassembled and a new face has been formed for it thanks to 3D technology. A scattered female skull, which was found during excavations in the Aktopraklık tumulus in the northwestern province of Bursa’s Akçalar district and determined to have been killed with torture, has been reassembled and its face has been constructed with 3D technology. (Hurriyet Daily News)
The caves of the Sierra de Atapuerca contain a rich fossil record of the earliest hominins in Europe starting nearly one million years ago. They represent an exceptional reserve of data, the scientific study of which provides priceless information about the appearance and the way of life of these remote human ancestors. (Past Horizons)
A team of Spanish and Egyptian archaeologists made a find in a southern Egyptian tomb that opens the way to a reinterpretation of Pharaonic chronology, since it could show that Amenhotep III and his son Amenhotep IV reigned together. The team, headed by Spaniard Francisco Martin Valentin and funded by Spain’s Gaselec foundation, excavated the remains of a wall and columns of the mausoleum of a minister of the 18th Pharaonic dynasty – 1569-1315 B.C. – in the province of Luxor. (Latino Daily News)
The inscription was unearthed at the Palace of Xerxes King (Khashayar Shah) reigned around 520 BCE. A team of experts is trying to attach the pieces together to decipher the text of inscription, said the team leader Professor Gian Pietro Basello of the University of Naples, Italy. Basello is a specialist in historical philology of Iranian languages of the “L’Orientale.” (Fars News)
New excavations at the Makimuku archaeological dig here have unearthed the remains of a building that further indicate the palace of the shaman queen Himiko was located on the site in the earliest days of Japan, municipal education board officials said Feb. 6. (The Asahi Shimbun)
Genetic adaptations for life at high elevations found in residents of the Tibetan plateau likely originated around 30,000 years ago in peoples related to contemporary Sherpa. These genes were passed on to more recent migrants from lower elevations via population mixing, and then amplified by natural selection in the modern Tibetan gene pool, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University, published in Nature Communications on Feb. 10.
The transfer of beneficial mutations between human populations and selective enrichment of these genes in descendent generations represents a novel mechanism for adaptation to new environments.
“The Tibetan genome appears to arise from a mixture of two ancestral gene pools,” said Anna Di Rienzo, PhD, professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago and corresponding author of the study. “One migrated early to high altitude and adapted to this environment. The other, which migrated more recently from low altitudes, acquired the advantageous alleles from the resident high-altitude population by interbreeding and forming what we refer to today as Tibetans.”
High elevations are challenging for humans because of low oxygen levels but Tibetans are well adapted to life above 13,000 feet. Due to physiological traits such as relatively low hemoglobin concentrations at altitude, Tibetans have lower risk of complications, such as thrombosis, compared to short-term visitors from low altitude. Unique to Tibetans are variants of the EGLN1 and EPAS1 genes, key genes in the oxygen homeostasis system at all altitudes. These variants were hypothesized to have evolved around 3,000 years ago, a date which conflicts with much older archaeological evidence of human settlement in Tibet.
To shed light on the evolutionary origins of these gene variants, Di Rienzo and her team, led by first author Choongwon Jeong, graduate student at the University of Chicago, obtained genome-wide data from 69 Nepalese Sherpa, an ethnic group related to Tibetans. These were analyzed together with the genomes of 96 unrelated individuals from high-altitude regions of the Tibetan plateau, worldwide genomes from HapMap3 and the Human Genome Diversity Panel, as well as data from Indian, Central Asian and two Siberian populations, through multiple statistical methods and sophisticated software.
The researchers found that, on a genomic level, modern Tibetans appear to descend from populations related to modern Sherpa and Han Chinese. Tibetans carry a roughly even mixture of two ancestral genomes: one a high-altitude component shared with Sherpa and the other a low-altitude component shared with lowlander East Asians. The low-altitude component is found at low to nonexistent frequencies in modern Sherpa, and the high-altitude component is uncommon in lowlanders. This strongly suggested that the ancestor populations of Tibetans interbred and exchanged genes, a process known as genetic admixture.
Tracing the history of these ancestor groups through genome analysis, the team identified a population size split between Sherpa and lowland East Asians around 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, a range consistent with proposed archaeological, mitochondria DNA and Y chromosome evidence for an initial colonization of the Tibetan plateau around 30,000 years ago.
“This is a good example of evolution as a tinkerer,” said Cynthia Beall, PhD, professor of anthropology at Case Western Reserve University and co-author on the study. “We see other examples of admixtures. Outside of Africa, most of us have Neanderthal genes—about 2 to 5 percent of our genome—and people today have some immune system genes from another ancient group called the Denisovans.”
The team also found that Tibetans shared specific high-altitude component traits with Sherpa, such as the EGLN1 and EPAS1 gene variants, despite the significant amount of genome contribution from lowland East Asians. Further analysis revealed these adaptations were disproportionally enhanced in frequency in Tibetans after admixture, strong evidence of natural selection at play. This stands in contrast to existing models that propose selection works through new advantageous mutations or on existing variants becoming beneficial in a new environment.
“The chromosomal locations that are so important for Tibetans to live at high elevations are locations that have an excess of genetic ancestry from their high-altitude ancestral gene pool,” Di Rienzo said. “This is a new tool we can use to identify advantageous alleles in Tibetans and other populations in the world that experienced this type of admixture and selection.”
This image shows the proportion of high-altitude ancestry (red) to low-altitude ancestry (green) in Sherpa, three groups of Tibetans, and lowland East Asians. Credit:Nature Communications, Anna Di Rienzo
In addition to the EPAS1 and EGLN1 genes, the researchers discovered two other genes with a strong proportion of high-altitude genetic ancestry, HYOU1 and HMBS. The former is known to be up-regulated in response to low oxygen levels and the latter plays an important role in the production of heme, a major component of hemoglobin.
“There is a strong possibility that these genes are adaptations to high altitude,” Di Rienzo adds. “They represent an example of how the ancestry-based approach used in this study will help make new discoveries about genetic adaptations.”
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The study “Admixture-facilitated genetic adaptations to high altitude in Tibet,” was supported by the National Science Foundation. Additional authors include Gorka Alkorta-Aranburu, David B. Witonsky and Jonathan K. Pritchard from the University of Chicago, Buddha Basnyat from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at Patan Hospital in Nepal and Maniraj Neupane from the Mountain Medicine Society of Nepal.
The University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences is one of the nation’s leading academic medical institutions. It comprises the Pritzker School of Medicine, a top 10 medical school in the nation; the University of Chicago Biomedical Sciences Division; and the University of Chicago Medical Center, which recently opened the Center for Care and Discovery, a $700 million specialty medical facility. Twelve Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine have been affiliated with the University of Chicago Medicine.
Case Western Reserve University is one of the country’s leading private research institutions. Located in Cleveland, we offer a unique combination of forward-thinking educational opportunities in an inspiring cultural setting. Our leading-edge faculty engage in teaching and research in a collaborative, hands-on environment. Our nationally recognized programs include arts and sciences, dental medicine, engineering, law, management, medicine, nursing and social work. Ab
Cover Photo: Thame village at 3,800 m in the Khumbu District of Nepal is the home of many outstanding Sherpa climbers and was a site of data collection for the present study. The yak in the foreground came from the Tibet Autonomous Region loaded with agricultural and trade goods; there is a flourishing cross-border trade in this area. Credit: Cynthia Beall
Photo first above from top, right: Sherpani is shown taking a rest along a trail at 3,800 m in the Khumbu District of Nepal and had carried loads to earn cash outside of the trekking season. Credit: Cynthia Beall
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And, 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.
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WHO WERE THE AEGEANS? The exciting new podcast series exploring the mysteries of the ancient Aegeans, the Bronze Age people who inspired Homer's epic stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
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