History

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The Ingenious Reason Medieval Castle Staircases Were Built Clockwise

If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones or medieval programs in general, you’re probably familiar with action-packed battle scenes during which soldiers storm castles, dodge arrows, and dash up spiral staircases. And, while those spiral staircases might not necessarily ascend clockwise in every television show or movie you’ve watched, they usually did in real life.

According to Nerdist, medieval architects built staircases to wrap around in a clockwise direction in order to disadvantage any enemies who might climb them. Since most soldiers wielded swords in their right hands, this meant that their swings would be inhibited by the inner wall, and they’d have to round each curve before striking—fully exposing themselves in the process.

Just as the clockwise spiral hindered attackers, so, too, did it favour the castle’s defenders. As they descended, they could swing their swords in arcs that matched the curve of the outer wall, and use the inner wall as a partial shield. And, because the outer wall runs along the wider edge of the stairs, there was also more room for defenders to swing. So, if you’re planning on storming a medieval castle any time soon, you should try to recruit as many left-handed soldiers as possible. And if you’re defending one, it’s best to station your lefties on crossbow duty and leave the tower-defending to the righties.

On his blog All Things Medieval, Will Kalif explains that the individual stairs themselves provided another useful advantage to protectors of the realm. Because the individual steps weren’t all designed with the same specifications, it made for much more uneven staircases than what we see today. This wouldn’t impede the defenders, having grown accustomed to the inconsistencies of the staircases in their home castle, but it could definitely trip up the attackers. Plus, going down a set of stairs is always less labour-intensive than going up.

Staircase construction and battle tactics are far from the only things that have changed since the Middle Ages. Back then, people even walked differently than we do—find out how (and why) here.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/the-ingenious-reason-medieval-castle-staircases-were-built-clockwise/ar-BBXJ3Zf

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Infrared images reveal hidden tattoos on Egyptian female mummies

Thanks to high-tech photography, researchers can now see previously hidden tattoos on ancient Egyptian mummies.

Infrared photography was used to help identify tattoos on seven mummified Egyptians dating as far back as around 1000 B.C. at a site known as Deir el-Medina, according to archaeologist Anne Austin of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who recently reported her findings at a meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Prior to these discoveries, tattoos had only been found on six mummies over more than 100 years of research at ancient sites in Egypt.

"When I first saw [the tattoos] with infrared, I felt both the thrill of discovery and the magic of this new technology," Austin told Fox News via email. "We were able to identify dozens of tattoos in a previous mummy published in 2017, which showed imagery of religious symbols, floral motifs and important animals like the cows of the goddess Hathor."

Austin explained to Fox News that the more recent finds have established tattoos on other mummies, but they have not yet detected anything identifiable by symbol and place.

"It's highly likely that with more evidence, we'll find clearer patterns to the location and symbolism of these tattoos, but that will have to wait we've conducted more research," she said.

One expert told Science News that the new discoveries could help researchers determine how the markings were used.

“Everything about the new tattoo discoveries is surprising because so little is known about this ancient Egyptian practice,” Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein of Brigham Young University told Science News.

Experts in the U.K. found figurative tattoos on two ancient Egyptian mummies last year and published their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The world's oldest figurative tattoos were found on Ötzi the Iceman, which is an approximately 5,300-year-old Neolithic mummy that was discovered in Italy in 1991.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/infrared-images-reveal-hidden-tattoos-on-egyptian-female-mummies/ar-BBXIav4

Edited December 5, 2019 by CaaC (John)
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A Celtic warrior from 2,000 years ago buried in a chariot with weapons and ponies hailed as the most important find of its kind in the UK

A Celtic warrior’s grave containing weapons and upright pony skeletons has been described by experts as a unique and significant discovery for the UK. 

A 2,000-year-old shield, which was found next to the ancient Briton’s remains, is “the most important British Celtic art object of the millennium”, said Dr Melanie Giles, of the University of Manchester. 

Archaeologists said that the burial site in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, is the only one in the UK where modern archaeologists have found horses buried in a “chariot grave”.

About 20 humans buried inside chariots have been found in the past 100 years or so, mostly in Yorkshire – although not with horses. 

Paula Ware, the director of Map Archaeological Practice, which excavated the grave, said: “The magnitude and preservation of the Pocklington chariot burial have no British parallel, providing greater insight into the Iron Age epoch.”

The archaeologist called the shield an “incomparable” Iron Age find due to its “previously unknown design feature”.

She said its scalloped border “is not comparable to any other Iron Age finds across Europe, adding to its valuable uniqueness”.

“The popular belief is that elaborate metal-faced shields were purely ceremonial, reflecting status, but not used in battle,” she said. “Signs of repairs can also be seen, suggesting the shield was not only old but likely to have been well used.”

© Provided by The Independent The 2000-year old shield has been hailed as “the most important British Celtic art object of the millennium” (SWNS)

The Iron Age grave, the inhabitant of which is believed to have died between 320BC and 174BC, was initially dug up at a building site in the market town in 2018.

The ancient Briton’s body was placed in the chariot behind the horses, which were placed to look as if they were leaping out of the grave.

“This discovery provides valuable additional evidence demonstrating how the ancient Britons loved their chariots,” Dr Giles, a leading chariot-burial expert and archaeologist, said at the time.

“It is conceivable that the dead man’s family and his community believed that the chariot would help him to reach the next world or would be useful to him when he got there,” she said.

Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, who own the find, said they are planning to donate the discovery to a museum.

Scott Waters, director at the housebuilding firm, said: “The excavation at The Mile development is a truly magnificent discovery for British history and we feel this recognition and find should remain in the local area.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/celtic-warrior-from-2000-years-ago-buried-in-chariot-with-weapons-and-ponies-hailed-as-most-important-find-of-its-kind-in-uk/ar-BBXQmfZ

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Is this the oldest family photo taken at Stonehenge?

English Heritage says it has unearthed what is believed to be the earliest family photo ever taken at Stonehenge.

The charity had asked the public to send in pictures of the famous neolithic Wiltshire monument to mark 100 years of public ownership.

Among the 1,000 plus snaps are some from 1875, which experts believe are the oldest family photos at Stonehenge.

The oldest picture without a family dates from 1853.

One picture shows the group sitting on the stones - which is now only allowed on special occasions - with a picnic rug and what appears to be a bottle of champagne.

In another, some of them are in a horse-drawn carriage.

"They're wearing fashionable outfits and hats," said English Heritage historian Susan Greaney.

"Right up until the 1920s and '30s people did dress up for days out like this, in their Sunday best, suits and hats."

The pictures will feature alongside more than 140 others, in the Your Stonehenge exhibition which runs from today to late August 2020 at Stonehenge.

Also included will be more modern pictures, such as the snap by photographer Martin Parr of a couple kissing in front of the stones during the 2019 autumn equinox. He now wants to track down the pair.

Ms Greaney said: "The exhibition shows how photography has changed - the rise of the selfie stick and the smartphone and how taking a photograph is a very different thing now.

"The way that people pose - people's faces have got closer to the camera until they are taking a picture of themselves more than they are of Stonehenge."

Of the possibility of finding an older family photograph, she said: "It would be quite nice if somebody comes forward and says 'We've got an earlier one'."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/is-this-the-oldest-family-photo-taken-at-stonehenge/ar-BBY4cNa

Edited December 17, 2019 by CaaC (John)

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The Story of That Famous Female Physician From Ancient Egypt Is Actually Wrong

Merit Ptah. In recent decades, the name of this ancient Egyptian doctor said to have lived nearly 5,000 years ago, has become a figurehead of women in science, technology, maths, and engineering (STEM).

She is credited as being the "first woman known by name in the history of science". But there's a bit of a problem - Merit Ptah probably didn't exist. Not as described, at any rate.

New historical research has traced the legend of Merit Ptah to its origins and discovered that a lot of the details got mixed up in the 80 years since her name first surfaced in 1938.

In fact, according to medical historian Jakub Kwiecinski of the University of Colorado Anschutz, the entire legend of this ancient Egyptian doctor is almost completely wrong.

"Merit Ptah was everywhere. In online posts about women in STEM, in computer games, in popular history books, there's even a crater on Venus named after her," Kwiecinski said.

"And yet, with all these mentions, there was no proof that she really existed. It soon became clear that there had been no ancient Egyptian woman physician called Merit Ptah."

The legend of Merit Ptah - a name meaning "beloved of the god Ptah" - started with early 20th century Canadian feminist and doctor Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead.

In 1938, she published a book titled A History of Women in Medicine: From the Earliest of Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In this book, on page 16, Campbell Hurd-Mead described an ancient Egyptian female physician.

"The first woman doctor of 'the old kingdom' in the fifth dynasty, or about 2730 BC, practised during the reign of a queen Neferirika-ra. Her son was a high priest at whose tomb is a tablet describing his mother as the 'Chief Physician'," Campbell Hurd-Mead wrote.

And, "in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings is the picture of a woman named Merit Ptah, the mother of a high priest, who is calling her 'the Chief Physician,' although neither her costume nor her bearing indicates her medical profession or her importance."

In addition to the fact that the Valley of the Kings wasn't in use until over 1,000 years later - from 1539 BCE to 1075 BCE - there are currently no records of any physician named Merit Ptah in the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, female or otherwise, Kwiecinski found.

"Merit Ptah as a name existed in the Old Kingdom, but does not appear in any of the collated lists of ancient Egyptian healers - not even as one of the 'legendary' or 'controversial' cases," he said.

"She is also absent from the list of Old Kingdom women administrators. No Old Kingdom tombs are present in the Valley of the Kings, where the story places Merit Ptah's son, and only a handful of such tombs exist in the larger area, the Theban Necropolis."

That does not mean there were no female doctors recorded in ancient Egypt, however. In fact, that's where it seems the mix-up occurred.

Because there was an Old Kingdom female doctor who seems to pretty closely match the details of Campbell Hurd-Mead's Merit Ptah. In fact, it's almost exactly the same in everything but the name.

Her name was Peseshet, and we know about her because she is described in the tomb of Akhethotep - her son, a royal official and overseer of priests, who lived during the Fifth Dynasty around 2400 BCE and was buried in an elaborate tomb in the necropolis of Saqqara.

A false door described both Akhethotep's mother and father. His father was a royal official named Ptahhotep, meaning "Peace of the god Ptah". His mother was Peseshet, and she was named as "Overseer of Woman Physicians."

A book briefly mentioning Peseshet (but leaving her nameless) was found in Campbell Hurd-Mead's personal library. Kwiecinski suggests that Campbell Hurd-Mead confused Peseshet with the wife of the vizier Ramose, who lived around 1350 and was buried in the Valley of the Kings. Her name was Merit Ptah.

"Unfortunately, Hurd-Mead in her own book accidentally mixed up the name of the ancient healer, as well as the date when she lived, and the location of the tomb," Kwiecinski said.

"And so, from a misunderstood case of an authentic Egyptian woman healer, Peseshet, a seemingly earlier Merit Ptah, 'the first woman physician', was born."

But this confusion shouldn't detract from the fact that women were working as physicians in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago, nor the importance of what Merit Ptah represents.

"While Merit Ptah is not an authentic ancient Egyptian character and not a good symbolic founding figure, she is a real symbol of the collective effort to write women back into history," Kwiecinski wrote in his paper.

"She is a genuine hero of the modern feminist struggle."

The research has been published in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/the-story-of-that-famous-female-physician-from-ancient-egypt-is-actually-wrong/ar-BBY5ikC

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Russia searches for Napoleon's gold

A Russian historian has come up with a new theory about the legend that the French Emperor Napoleon hid wagonloads of stolen treasure during his disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812.

Viacheslav Ryzhkov says treasure-hunters have been looking in the wrong place for 200 years and told his local Rabochy Put newspaper that they should turn their attention to his home town of Rudnya, near the border with Belarus.

There have been persistent rumours for over 200 years that Napoleon's defeated Grande Armée made off with 80 tonnes of gold and other valuables that his soldiers had looted in Moscow and buried it en route back to France when the going got too tough.

No trace of it has ever been found, but Philippe de Ségur, a member of Napoleon's staff, said the treasure was dumped in Lake Semlevo in Smolensk Region.

The site appeared credible, as the French army abandoned large amounts of arms and ammunition nearby. Various Russian officials, archaeologists and treasure-hunters have searched the lake since the 1830s, to no avail.

But other historians think General de Ségur's account was an attempt to divert attention from the treasure's real resting place, and have suggested the River Berezina in Belarus as a likely site. A Franco-Belarusian expedition in 2012 found nothing.

Viacheslav Ryzhkov's theory made it to the Russian national media in the New Year, attracted as it was by his colourful account of what might have happened.

'Decoy convoy'

He believes Napoleon sent a decoy convoy to trick Russian spies into thinking the loot was in Lake Semlevo, while the emperor himself and the real treasure slipped away south towards Rudnya and the nearby Lake Bolshaya Rutavech.

There he had a causeway built into the middle of the lake, and the gold and jewels carefully hidden in a mound of silt at the bottom.

In support of his theory, Mr Ryzhkov cites local accounts of the causeway, which gradually eroded after 1812, and a 1989 analysis that showed unusually high concentrations of silver ion in the water.

Reporters have seized in particular on his claim that "with the right equipment and specialists, the treasure can be salvaged from the mound on the lake bed".

Not everyone is convinced. Professional treasure-hunter Vladimir Poryvayev is the Russia media's go-to expert on Napoleon's gold, having spent years on its trail, and his verdict is crushing.

"This is fiction. For centuries historians and archivists have documented Napoleon's daily progress on the Russian campaign... It is completely improbable that he could abandon his army and take off with a 'gold train' of 400 horse-drawn carts," he told the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid.

'Pure fantasy'

As for the lake causeway theory, Mr Poryvayev is equally dismissive: "It took a few hundred French cavalrymen just a matter of days to build an impressive dam in the freezing late autumn, then construct an 'underwater crypt' for tonnes of treasure? Did they have scuba gear? It's pure fantasy."

The treasure-hunter asked when Mr Ryzhkov was going to provide some documentary evidence for his theory beyond silver ion levels, given that Lake Semlevo also has high concentrations as a result of the natural soil conditions in Smolensk Region.

Another consideration is that Bolshaya Rutavech, along with five other lakes in the same system, has enjoyed special environmental protection since 1975. Motorboats are banned, and even anglers have to stick to the shore, so a major excavation of the lake bed would cause an uproar.

Vladimir Poryvayev says people come to him with novel ideas about the location of the gold several times a year, although not all the theories are as eye-catching as the Rudnya decoy.

But he isn't a complete sceptic and told the paper that Napoleon's treasure might well exist. "When it's found, it will most likely be by accident," he concluded.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-46745792

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US archaeologists discover two ancient Greek tombs hidden for thousands of years

A team of U.S. archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati (UC) have discovered two royal tombs from the Bronze Age in a find that promises to shed light what life was like in ancient Greece.

The two tombs were discovered in Pylos, Greece last year, but the discovery was only announced on Tuesday after more than 18 months of excavation and documentation.

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The tombs contained items of jewellery, including a gold ring engraved with two bulls flanked by sheaves of grain and a pendant engraved with the likeness of an ancient Egyptian goddess which the researchers say could help tell stories of life in Greece from 3,500 years ago.

The team, led by Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker from UC’s Classics Department, came across the new tombs while investigating the grave of an ancient Greek, nicknamed the ‘Griffin Warrior,’ which they had discovered nearby in 2015

The beehive-shaped tombs had been long-hidden by an estimated 40,000 stones which had collapsed in on the tombs thousands of years ago, filling the interiors with rubble.

The rarity of the discovery was not lost on the researchers. “It soon became clear to us that lightning had struck again,” Davis said.

The tombs’ walls were marked with flakes of gold leaf, which would have once covered the walls entirely, indicating that the tombs belonged to two families from the highest echelons in Ancient Greek society.

“I think these are probably people who were very sophisticated for their time,” Stocker said. “They have come out of a place in history where there were few luxury items and imported goods. And all of a sudden at the time of the first tholos tombs, luxury items appear in Greece.”

“You have this explosion of wealth. People are vying for power. It’s the formative years that will give rise to the Classical Age of Greece,” she added.

The team will continue working at the site for the next two years, and hope to discover more ancient treasures.

“It has been 50 years since any substantial tombs of this sort have been found at any Bronze Age palatial site,” Davis said. “That makes this extraordinary.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-archaeologists-discover-two-ancient-greek-tombs-hidden-for-thousands-of-years/ar-BBY8ZLV?li=BBoPWjQ#image=2

Edited June 27, 2020 by CaaC (John)
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Archaeologists discover ancient Mayan palace in eastern Mexico

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a large palace likely used by the Mayan elite more than 1,000 years ago in the ancient city of Kuluba, near the modern-day tourist hot spot of Cancun in eastern Mexico, Mexican anthropology officials said.

The remains of the six-meter high building, 55 meters (180 feet) long and 15 meters wide suggest the palace was inhabited for two long periods between 600-1050 A.D., the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a statement.

The Mayan civilization reached its peak between 250 and 900 A.D. when it ruled large swaths of what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.

The palace was discovered in the east of the Kuluba archaeological zone, a key pre-Hispanic site in Mexico's Yucatan state.

"This work is the beginning, we've barely begun uncovering one of the most voluminous structures on the site," archaeologist Alfredo Barrera said in a video shared by INAH.

Kuluba had important ties with the Maya cities of Ek' Balam and more crucially, Chichen Itza, falling under its influence and becoming part of its network of trade and territory.

Along with the palace, Mexican experts are exploring four other structures in the area known as "Group C" in Kuluba's central square, including an altar, remnants of two residential buildings and a round structure believed to be an oven.

Conservationists are exploring reforesting parts of Kuluba to protect the historical site from wind and sun damage, INAH said.

The site should be opened to the public in the medium term, the institute added.

(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by David Gregorio)

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/archaeologists-discover-ancient-mayan-palace-in-eastern-mexico/ar-BBYneQP

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by CaaC (John)

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The Mysterious Origins of the Handshake

Shaking hands seems like a gesture that has been around forever. Indeed, a throne base from the reign of ancient Assyria's Shalmaneser III in the 9th century BCE clearly shows two figures clasping hands. The Iliad, usually dated to the 8th century BCE, mentions that two characters “clasped each other's hands and pledged their faith.” Centuries later, Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It that two characters “shook hands and swore brothers.” It might seem like shaking hands is an ancient custom, the roots of which are lost to the sands of time.

Except.

Historians who have pored over old etiquette books have noticed that handshaking in the modern sense of a greeting doesn’t appear until the mid-19th century when it was considered a slightly improper gesture that should only be used with friends. But if Shakespeare was writing about shaking hands a few hundred years earlier, what happened?

Defining the Handshake

According to author Torbjörn Lundmark in his Tales of Hi and Bye: Greeting and Parting Rituals Around the World, the problem comes in differing definitions of the handshake. The early handshakes mentioned above were part of making deals or burying the hatchet; Shalmaneser III’s throne base references him honouring a treaty with the Babylonian king during a revolt. In the Iliad, Diomedes and Glaucus shook hands when they realized they were “guest-friends,” and Diomedes proclaimed “Let’s not try to kill each other.” Shakespeare was similarly referencing settlement of a conflict.

The modern handshake as a form of greeting is harder to trace. Traditionally, the origins are often given to the Quakers. But as Dutch sociologist Herman Roodenburg—the chief authority for the history of handshaking—wrote in a chapter of an anthology called A Cultural History of Gesture, “More than in any other field, that of the study of gesture is one in which the historian has to make the most of only a few clues” [PDF].

One of the earliest clues he cites is a 16th-century German translation of the French writer Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel. When one character meets Gargantua, Rabelais writes (in one modern English translation), “he was greeted with a thousand caresses, a thousand embraces, a thousand good-days.” But according to Roodenburg, the 16th-century German translation adds references to shaking hands. Roodenburg argues that if the translator adapted Rabelais to his audience, that’s an indication for an early handshaking tradition.

There's additional evidence for a handshaking tradition in that era: In 1607 the author James Cleland (believed to have been a Scotsman living in England) proclaimed that instead of things like bowing down to everyone’s shoes and kissing hands, he’d rather “retained our good olde Scottish shaking of the two right hands together at meeting with an uncovered head".

Handshaking—Back to the Future

A popular hypothesis suggests that Cleland’s statements against bowing were actually a wish to go back to a potentially very traditional (though poorly recorded) method of greeting in Europe. As the centuries progressed, handshaking was replaced by more ‘hierarchical’ ways of greeting—like bowing. According to Roodenburg, handshaking survived in a few niches, like in Dutch towns where they’d use the gesture to reconcile after disagreements. Around the same time, the Quakers—who valued equality—also made use of the handshake. Then, as the hierarchies of the continent weakened, the handshake re-emerged as a standard greeting among equals—the way it remains today.

Not everyone fell in love with the handshake, however. According to an article from December 1884, “the usage has found its way into other nations, but so contrary is it to their instinct, that, in France, for example, society has been recently formed to abolish ‘le shake-hands’ as a vulgar English innovation.”

As for why shaking hands was deemed a good method of greeting, rather than some other gesture, the most popular explanation is that it incapacitates the right hand, making it useless for weapon holding. In the 19th century, it was argued that shaking hands without removing gloves was quite rude and required an immediate apology. One 1870 text explains that this “idea would also seem to be an occult remnant of the old notion that the glove might conceal a weapon.”

Sadly, in a world where obscure Rabelais translations provide critical evidence, the true reason may remain forever elusive.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/the-mysterious-origins-of-the-handshake/ar-BBYx1QB

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'The ghost of Manzanar': Japanese WW2 internee's body found in the US

A skeleton found in California last October has been identified as a Japanese-American artist who was held in a World War Two internment camp.

Giichi Matsumura had gone on a hike with fellow internees from the Manzanar internment camp for people of Japanese ancestry when he died in August 1945.

He left the group to paint the scene in solitude when a freak storm hit.

Mr Matsumura was given a sparse burial in the mountains, and details of his death were eventually lost to time.

But last year, he was rediscovered.

'The ghost of Manzanar'

Tyler Hofer and Brandon Follin were hiking near Mount Williamson when they came across an intact skeleton, partially covered by rocks.

According to Associated Press, the skeleton had a belt around the waist, leather shoes on the feet, and its arms were crossed over its chest.

Officers from Inyo County Sheriff's Office, the local police force, searched their records for missing person reports dating back decades and couldn't find anyone matching the description of the skeleton.

However, Mr Matsumura's story had been given renewed attention in 2012 when a documentary about the Manzanar camp came out. Although a segment about his death didn't make it into the final film, director Cory Shiozaki would talk about it at screenings.

FULL REPORT

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Hadrian's Wall fort gifted to England's historic sites collection

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A Roman fort at Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland, built around 122AD and which housed a garrison of 500 soldiers from Gaul, has been given to the nation.

English Heritage has announced that Carrawburgh Roman fort has joined sites such as Stonehenge, Tintagel castle, and Eltham Palace, in the national collection of historic sites and properties following its gift by a landowner.

Carrawburgh is one of 16 forts along Hadrian’s Wall, a boundary line that stretches 73 miles. It accommodated soldiers, first from the south-west of France and later southern Belgium, as part of the Roman effort to defend the imperial frontier and repel tribes from the north.

The fort sits between the Roman cavalry fort at Chesters and the infantry outpost at Housesteads. Nearby is a Roman temple built by the fort’s soldiers and dedicated to Mithras, an eastern god who, according to legend, captured and killed the primaeval bull in a cave.

Today sheep are more likely to be grazing on the grassy mounds which largely cover the remains of the 1.4 hectares (three and a half acre) fort. English Heritage said that compared to other sites on the wall Carrawburgh had undergone very little archaeological excavation, which meant it had many secrets and stories to be explored.

The site has been looked after by the family of Jennifer Du Cane since 1950. She said: “It has been a great privilege but also a serious responsibility to own Carrawburgh Roman fort. The time has come to pass on this amazing site as a gift to the nation.”

Carrawburgh is the first site of its type acquired by English Heritage since the body was made a charity by the government in 2015.

Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s chief executive, said: “This is a great start to the new year, not only for English Heritage but for the nation who will get to enjoy this wonderfully evocative site on what was once the edge of the Roman empire.”

Legal ownership of the site was transferred to Historic England, the government’s heritage advisor, and it will be cared for by English Heritage as part of the national heritage collection, which comprises about 420 sites, many free to enter, that together tell the story of England.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “We are enormously grateful for this generous gift. Hadrian’s Wall is one of England’s most important historic sites and Carrawburgh makes a really valuable addition to our national collection of historic properties.

“The fort represents a key part of the Roman frontier and is of outstanding archaeological significance. It has the potential to contribute significantly to our knowledge of the Roman empire and to visitor enjoyment of the wall.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/hadrians-wall-fort-gifted-to-englands-historic-sites-collection/ar-BBYMaFg

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'Extremely rare’ Assyrian carvings discovered in Iraq

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In the eighth century B.C., Assyrian King Sargon II ruled over a wealthy and powerful empire that included much of today’s Middle East and inspired fear among its neighbours. Now a team of Italian and Iraqi Kurdish archaeologists working in northern Iraq have uncovered ten stone reliefs that adorned a sophisticated canal system dug into the bedrock. The surprising find of such beautifully crafted carvings—typically found only in royal palaces—sheds light on the impressive public works supported by a leader better known for his military prowess.

“Assyrian rock reliefs are extremely rare monuments,” said Daniele Morandi Bonacossi, an archaeologist at the Italy’s University of Udine, who co-led the recent expedition. With one exception, no such panels have been found in their original location since 1845. “And it is highly probable that more reliefs, and perhaps also monumental celebratory cuneiform inscriptions, are still buried under the soil debris that filled the canal.”

The site near the town of Faida, close to the border with Turkey, has been largely closed to researchers for a half-century due to modern conflict. In 1973 a British team noted the tops of three stone panels, but tensions between Kurds and the Baathist regime in Baghdad prevented further work. An expedition led by Morandi Bonacossi returned in 2012 and found six more reliefs. The subsequent invasion by ISIS again halted research efforts; the battle line between the Islamic State and Kurdish forces lay less than 20 miles away until the Muslim fundamentalists were defeated in 2017.

This past autumn, Morandi Bonacossi and Hasan Ahmed Qasim from Iraq Kurdistan’s Dohuk department of antiquities catalogued a total of ten reliefs set along the banks of an ancient four-mile-long canal. The scene they portray is unique, according to the Italian archaeologist.

The panels display a king—who the archaeologists believe is Sargon II—observing a procession of Assyrian gods, including the main deity Ashur riding on a dragon and a horned lion, with his consort Mullissu on a lion-supported throne. Among the other figures are Ishtar, goddess of love and war, the sun god Shamash, and Nabu, the god of wisdom. Archaeologists suspect that such images emphasized to passersby that fertility comes from the divine as well as earthly power.

“The reliefs suggest that politically charged scenes of royal power and its divine legitimacy might have been commonplace,” said Harvard University archaeologist Jason Ur, who is researching ancient water systems in the region. The discovery shows that these works of art were “not just in the imperial palaces but everywhere, even where farmers were extracting water from canals for their fields.” 

The canal skirts a nearby range of hills and was fed by limestone springs. Branches off the waterway provided extensive irrigation for barley, wheat, and other crops. The fields would have helped feed the 100,000 or more residents of Nineveh, then one of the largest cities in the world. The ruins of this vast metropolis lay some 60 miles to the south, across the Tigris River from today’s city of Mosul.

Sargon II ruled over what historians call the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which dominated the region from 911 B.C. until its destruction in 609 B.C. at the hands of Persians and Babylonians. As the first army to use iron weapons, the Assyrians developed advanced military techniques to overwhelm their enemies.

When Sargon seized the throne in 721 B.C., he immediately conquered the rebellious northern kingdom of Israel and forcibly relocated thousands of captives. The Bible mentions that he overwhelmed the coastal city of Ashdod, and archaeologists recently found a hastily built wall around the settlement that failed to ward off the threat. The southern kingdom of Judah avoided Israel’s fate by becoming a vassal state.

Sargon’s military victories continued across Anatolia and the western Iranian plateau. At home, he constructed a new capital outside Nineveh at Dur Sharrukin, which means “Sargon’s fortress,” but little else is known of his non-military exploits. The Faida panels, the archaeologists say, point to extensive royal support for improving lands near the Assyrian heartlands.

Sargon’s son Sennacherib expanded this network and built what may be the world’s oldest aqueduct, a structure crossing a river near Nineveh that employed stone arches and waterproof cement. “Over steep-sided valleys, I spanned an aqueduct of white limestone blocks; I made those waters flow over it,” he boasted in an inscription.

Oxford University archaeologist Stephanie Dalley has argued that the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon actually were built in Nineveh to take advantage of the plentiful water pumped into the city. Though that thesis is controversial, Ur and other researchers say that scholars have underestimated Assyrian technological expertise off the battlefield.

The expedition itself used advanced technologies, including laser scanning and digital photogrammetry, to record every detail of the stone panels and their context. A drone provided high-resolution aerial photos that will allow researchers to map the entire canal network.

But the precious remains of Sargon’s patronage are “strongly threatened by vandalism, illegal excavations, and the expansion of the nearby village,” warned Morandi Bonacossi. One of the reliefs, he added, was damaged by a would-be looter last May. Another panel was battered when a farmer expanded a stable. And in 2018 a modern aqueduct was cut through the ancient canal.

The ultimate goal, he said, is to create an archaeological park that includes other rock reliefs, and to win UNESCO World Heritage Site protection for the entire hydraulic system constructed by several Assyrian rulers a full five centuries before the Romans arrived.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/extremely-rare-assyrian-carvings-discovered-in-iraq/ar-BBZ4wKK

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Jersey 'drowned landscape' could yield Ice Age insights

Archaeologists are planning an ambitious survey of part of the seabed off Jersey where Neanderthals once lived.

The site is part-exposed during spring low tide, giving the team a four-hour window to dig while the sea is out.

Stone tools and mammoth remains have been recovered from the Violet Bank over the years.

Neanderthals are known to have inhabited what is now Jersey for hundreds of thousands of years.

The Violet Bank is a type of coastal zone known as an intertidal reef. It's underwater at high tide but some 10 sq km of the seabed is exposed during the low spring tide.

In May, the team will spend a week living at an offshore fort built in the 18th Century and then digging on the seabed for three to four hours before the area is inundated.

The project's leader Dr Matt Pope, from UCL's Institute of Archaeology, said: "The Violet Bank is a starkly beautiful and scientifically important landscape.

"We know there is a record of Neanderthal archaeology, extinct fauna such as mammoth and more recent prehistoric monuments out there waiting to be discovered and documented."

• Neanderthals 'dived in the ocean' for shellfish
• Jersey's Neanderthal survival story
• Neanderthals were capable of making art
• Viewpoint: Why we still underestimate the Neanderthals

The effort aims to discover records of early human behaviour, insights into the ancient environment and could shed light on past climate change.

It will seek to understand how people used this landscape before the sea covered it around 6,000 years ago.

FULL REPORT

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These lovely little statues enchanted ancient Greece

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In the 1860s peasants from the town of Bratsi, in the Greek region of Boeotia, north of Athens were ploughing the soil when they unearthed an ancient grave, and then another and another. Although there were no lavish grave goods to be found, the burial sites did harbour a magnificent treasure of a different kind. As they dug, the peasants began to unearth beautifully made terracotta figurines. The fascinating little statues, mainly of female figures between three and nine inches tall, were everywhere. Eventually, hundreds would be collected.

The accidental archaeologists offered the pieces for sale to anyone they met and news of the extraordinary find soon spread, attracting treasure hunters. Grimadha, near the location of the ancient city-state of Tanagra, was a popular target for looters. It is estimated that more than 8,000 graves were dug up as people hungrily searched for the figurines.

The illegal excavation of the Tanagra necropolises became an open secret, and Greek authorities eventually decided to intervene, sending archaeologist Panayiotis Stamatakis to oversee the first official dig in 1874. The archaeologists’ attempt at imposing some order on the excavation was too little, too late. Their findings lacked the necessary detail to be of much academic use. In 1911 excavations began to be carried out more methodically, but it was not until the 1970s, more than a century after the first figurines came to light, that excavations were conducted with the proper rigour and care.

The demand for Tanagra figurines seemed to have no bounds in late 19th-century Europe. The statuettes, mainly of women, fit in with the ideals of feminine beauty and fashion of the Belle Epoque. The softness, grace, and modesty idealized in the diminutive figures, their robes, drapery, head coverings, and hairstyles contrasted with the austere depiction of male figures: classical Greek gods, statesmen and soldiers.

The presence of the government archaeologists at Tanagra did not stop the grave robbing. The insatiable demand for the figurines drove more clandestine removal from the necropolises. Fake figurines also began to enter the antiquities market. Some of the imitations were clumsy copies, but others were skilled forgeries and more difficult to detect. Local villagers would sell the figures–authentic and otherwise–to whoever would buy them, at increasingly exorbitant prices.

Many of these imposters fooled experts for years. They even made their way into prominent museum collections. Recent thermoluminescence analysis of Tangara figurines in the German State collections has revealed that as many as 20 per cent of them are fakes.

Custom models

The delicacy of the Tanagra figurines reveals how skilled the Greeks were in the art of coroplasty, or clay modelling. The body would be shaped from a two-part mould, and then the head and arms (also created from moulds) would be attached. The figure would be customized through different poses and by adding different decorative elements, like crowns and flower hats.

Before firing, artisans applied a mixture called white slip, made of water and clay. After the clay had baked, water-based pigments were applied to a layer of fresh lime plaster. The figures were painted in naturalistic hues and soft colours. Rich shades of blue and gold leaf were used sparingly, as both were very expensive at the time. The figures were popular around the Mediterranean in the fourth century B.C. Figurines have been found in Corinth, Macedonia, Asia Minor, southern Italy, North Africa, and as far away as Kuwait.

Form and function

The figurines discovered at Tanagra demonstrate how the wide artistic range of this kind of Greek sculpture. The excavations unearthed hundreds of different female forms, ranging from demure matrons to nubile veiled dancers and girls at play. Rather than exalting the gods or statesmen, these quiet statues were an intimate look into the lives of everyday women and their children, an experience which is often not reflected in the literature of the time. Their clothing and their gestures reveal contemporary attitudes towards female roles in society.

Scholars hold differing opinions on the function of these small statues. It’s possible that they manufactured for different uses. Since the majority of figurines were grave goods, it is possible they played an official role in burial practices. It’s also possible that the original rationale behind burying the figurines was eventually forgotten, while the custom of depositing them remained. Many Tanagra figurines were found in domestic settings, which suggests that they could have been affordable, decorative art.

Some of the most famous figurines, such as the Lady in Blue and the Sophoclean, seem to have been inspired by large statues by master sculptors such as Praxiteles and Leochares. Some experts believe that the Tanagra figurines were produced purely for their aesthetic appeal, as mini replicas, a practice that would later be developed by Roman patricians when they decorated their residences.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/these-lovely-little-statues-enchanted-ancient-greece/ar-BBZtk0K#image=1

Edited January 31, 2020 by CaaC (John)

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Biggest Turtle to Ever Walk the Earth Was Hunted by 40 Foot Crocodiles

The shell of an enormous prehistoric turtle that would have been eight feet long has been discovered in Colombia's Tatacoa Desert. Analysis of the shell showed several bite marks indicating this animal was hunted by enormous crocodiles that lived at the same time, some of which could have been over 40 feet in length.

The turtle, Stupendemys geographicus, lived during the mid to late Miocene, 13 to 7 million years ago. It represents the biggest complete turtle shell ever discovered.

S. geographicus was first discovered in the 1970s and is believed to be the largest land turtle ever to have walked Earth. However, the species is not well understood, with key details about it are lacking.

Edwin Cadena, a Geologist and Vertebrate Paleontologist from Colombia's Universidad del Rosario, and colleagues were searching for specimens to see if they could find out more about their lifestyles and biology. Findings are published in Science Advances.

S. geographicus was previously known to have lived in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. The discovery of the new specimen expands this range significantly. It also provides an insight into the life of these turtles, showing males had huge horns on their shells that aided fighting.

Their analysis also revealed bite marks and punctured bones that indicates they were preyed on by the enormous, extinct crocodiles Gryposuchus and Purussaurus, the latter of which could reach over 40 feet in length.

In an email to Newsweek, Cadena said he and the team were surprised at the size of the new specimens, and even more so when they identified the "massive horns" the males had. The team propose these horns would have helped protect their skulls during combat.

Researchers say these turtles were able to grow to huge sizes because of their warm, wet habitat. Several other species in South America are known to have been extremely large, such as Titanoboa, the largest snake ever.

Cadena said S. geographicus may have gone extinct around 5 million years ago. "Although there is not the last word on the causes of its extinction we attribute it to a combination of factors including the habitat segmentation due to geological and hydrological events that occurred in northern South America for that time including intense uplift of the Andes, and the reconfiguration of the major rivers: Amazon, Orinoco and Magdalena," he said. "This reduction in habitat size could have created ecological disruptions for the giant turtles and crocodiles inhabiting this region and favouring their extinction."

Cadena said they now plant to continue to explore South America in search of new fossils: "Not only of this giant Stupendemys but also other extinct species that could shed light on the origin and history of current biodiversity, fossils that could even make a small contribution to conservation plans of their living descendants."

James Parham, Associate Professor of Geological Sciences from the California State University, Fullerton, who was not involved in the research, said the findings were important as they give a more complete picture of a turtle celebrated by paleontologists: "They show that Stupendemys was not only bigger than we thought but also more widespread. Is also nice to know what the skull of these turtles looks like," he told Newsweek.

Adán Pérez García, from the Evolutionary Biology Group of Spain's UNED, who was also not involved told Newsweek the research has several implications and markedly increases our knowledge of the anatomy of the biggest turtle to ever live. "The new study not only allows to know new anatomical information, but also helps to distinguish between males and females, and to better understand the way of life of this unique large form," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/biggest-turtle-to-ever-walk-the-earth-was-hunted-by-40-foot-crocodiles/ar-BBZWtwm

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Have archaeologists found the burial place of Rome's founder? Tomb found under the city's Forum may be the final resting place of Romulus

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A tomb discovered under the Roman Forum could be the resting place of the city's legendary founder Romulus.     

Archaeologists are believed to have uncovered an area devoted to the first King of Rome and a rock sarcophagus, measuring 4.6ft, which are believed to date back to the 6th century BC. 

Director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park Alfonsina Russo told The Times: 'This is an extraordinary discovery. The forum never ceases to yield amazing fresh treasures.' 

The underground temple is buried beneath the entrance stairway to the Curia and was the place where Roman senators voted with every presumed to belong to one. 

What is the Roman Forum?  

The Roman Forum, known as the Forum Romanum in Latin, was the heartbeat of both Ancient Rome and its continent-straddling empire. 

Historians believe people first began meeting in the Forum in 500BC when the Roman Republic was founded. 

The area is situated between  Palatine Hill and Capitoline Hill. 

The Temple of Julius Caesar is the most striking monument and was built a couple of years after Ancient Rome's most famous leader was murdered in 44BC.

Scholars believed, according to Ms Russo, that the temple's altar has been positioned where ancient Romans believed Romulus was buried. Yet no bones were found in the coffin.  

The finding had taken place near the Lapis Niger, an ancient black shrine in the Roman Forum, according to Andreas Steiner, editor of the magazine Archeo.  

The shrine, discovered in 1899, has a Greek inscription referring to how the sacred ground must not be disturbed. 

In Roman mythology, Romulus and his twin brother Remus were left in a basket on the River Tiber. 

The pair survived and were discovered under a fig tree and a she-wolf suckled them. 

Romulus later killed his brother Remus in a fight on what became Palatine Hill in 753BC. 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/have-archaeologists-found-the-burial-place-of-romes-founder-tomb-found-under-the-citys-forum-may-be-the-final-resting-place-of-romulus/ar-BB106uwf?li=BBoPWjQ#image=1

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A stunning 14th-century medieval chapel is uncovered in County Durham 370 years after it was destroyed in the wake of the English Civil War

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Following this, the exact location of the chapel site had become a mystery. 

Part of Auckland Castle, the remains of the long lost place of worship — Bek's Chapel — were uncovered with the help of staff and students from Durham University, experts believe that the chapel would have been stunning to behold in its heyday — featuring a timber ceiling and huge pillars with decorated stonework.

FULL REPORT

Edited February 19, 2020 by CaaC (John)

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Impressive underground cities where people actually lived

Hidden entrances, ancient tunnels, and complex histories lurk beneath the earth's surface, teeming with tales of a life that few people know much about. Many underground paths or malls claim to be cities, but check out this gallery to see the few real underground habitations where people have actually carried out their lives.

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@nudge, in ref to the above 

 

This picture amongst that lot above you will like I think and any other Star Wars fanatics...

13/41 SLIDES© Shutterstock

Matmata, Tunisia

Matmata's Hotel Sidi Driss was used in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ as Luke Skywalker’s childhood home on Tatooine.

 

14/41 SLIDES© BrunoPress

Matmata, Tunisia

The underground city was also featured in 'Attack of the Clones.'

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by CaaC (John)

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17/41 SLIDES© Shutterstock

Petra, Jordan

One of the most exquisite carvings is Al-Khazneh, or “the Treasury,” which features an ornamental facade that reaches 130 ft (40 m) up a rock face.

18/41 SLIDES© BrunoPress

Petra, Jordan

Petra is also known for its cameo in the film 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.'

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Secret 17th-century doorway found in Parliament restoration works

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A secret doorway used during a 17th-century royal coronation has been discovered in the House of Commons.

The entrance, thought to have been used by political luminaries such as diarist Samuel Pepys and Robert Walpole, the first de facto prime minister, dates back more than 350 years.

The hidden walkway had originally been established for Charles II’s coronation in 1660 to allow guests to process to the new king’s celebratory banquet.

It was later used by MPs to access the Commons, which was originally in the medieval Palace of Westminster before a fire destroyed much of its structure in the 19th century.

Only Westminster Hall – the oldest part of the palace, where the doorway was found – survived the blaze and was incorporated into Parliament’s neo-Gothic rebuild.

For the past 70 years, the entrance had remained forgotten behind wooden panelling in a cloister that was formerly used as offices by the Parliamentary Labour Party, according to Commons authorities.

A brass plate marks where the doorway had been in Westminster Hall, but historians thought it had been filled in during reconstruction work after the palace was bombed during the Second World War.

It was rediscovered following recent investigative work by Parliament’s architecture and heritage team who have been undertaking Westminster’s £4 billion restoration programme.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: “To think that this walkway has been used by so many important people over the centuries is incredible.

“I am so proud of our staff for making this discovery and I really hope this space is celebrated for what it is – a part of our parliamentary history.”

Graffiti written by bricklayers who helped architect Sir Charles Barry restore the palace following the fire in 1834 was also discovered during the works.

One sentence of the graffiti, dated 1851, reads: “This room was enclosed by Tom Porter who was very fond of Ould Ale.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/secret-17th-century-doorway-found-in-parliament-restoration-works/ar-BB10o8DU#image=1

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Did early humans in India survive a supervolcano?

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Roughly 74,000 years ago, a supervolcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra roared to life. Known as the Toba eruption, the event was the largest volcanic blast in the last two million years, scattering ash thousands of miles and leaving behind a 60-mile-wide crater that has since filled with water.

Some scientists have argued that the supereruption must have caused a global cold spell, darkening the sky with ash and soot and producing a prolonged period of deforestation in South Asia. If that’s the case, though, the eruption and its aftermath didn’t stop early humans from surviving in central India, scientists report.

At the Dhaba dig site in the state of Madhya Pradesh, ancient tools appear in layers of sediment that date to between 80,000 and 65,000 years ago. According to a new study in Nature Communications, the same types of tools continued being used before and after the eruption, so the study authors assert that one continuous population must have survived the fallout from Toba.

“The big theory out there was that the Toba supereruption created a volcanic winter, so it led to glaciation, it resculpted ecosystems, [and] it had tremendous impacts on the atmosphere and landscapes,” says Michael Petraglia, an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. But his group hasn’t found evidence for such large impacts to the landscape at the Dhaba site.

“It’s much more subtle than what people had imagined,” Petraglia says. “It doesn’t mean there’s no ecological change, but these hunter-gatherers would have been able to adapt to the changes.”

The study authors believe the artefacts from India match similar tools previously found at sites in Africa, Australia, and the Arabian Peninsula that date to the African Middle Stone Age, about 285,000 to 50,000 years ago. Given the similarity between these tool technologies, the team suggests that the site offers yet more evidence of Homo sapiens moving out of Africa earlier than previously believed.

Hints of early migrations

Genetic evidence suggests modern humans are the descendants of a wave of Homo sapiens that left Africa sometime between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, although other populations remained in Africa. But fossils found in present-day Israel that appear to be modern humans date back more than 120,000 years. Such findings have led researchers to search for more clues about when smaller groups of humans might have left Africa.

When Petraglia went to India nearly 15 years ago to search for evidence of early humans’ migrations, he expected to find artefacts from the Upper Paleolithic—stone tools similar to those used by Homo sapiens in Europe around 45,000 years ago. Instead, his team uncovered much older stone tools at Dhaba, suggesting early humans trekked thousands of miles from Africa to India earlier than expected.

The new study provides further evidence against the once-popular belief that the Toba eruption decimated human populations and halted migrations around the world, says Jayne Wilkins, an anthropologist and executive member of the Human Evolution Research Institute in Cape Town, South Africa who was not involved in the research. A 2018 study similarly showed continuous tool use in South Africa around the time of the Toba eruption, and this site in India is about 3,000 miles closer to the volcano than South Africa—so conditions may have been significantly more challenging for survival.

“Data from new archaeological sites like Dhaba are showing that by 74,000 years ago, early hunter-gatherers were resilient in the face of major climatic events, aided by complex technologies, social networks, and other sophisticated cultural adaptations,” Wilkins says in an email.

“Whether this is exactly the same population or not could be debated, but based on the available information, it’s a reasonable suggestion.”

Shards of doubt

However, other experts are more critical of the study’s conclusions.

“I’m not excited about this paper,” says Stanley Ambrose, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois who has been studying tool technologies, geology, and human evolution since the 1980s. Ambrose collaborated with Petraglia on a 2010 study of tools excavated in southern India, which also suggested continued habitation after the eruption, and he authored a paper in 1998 suggesting Toba may have had an impact on the evolution of Homo sapiens.

“I’ve got Toba ash in my lab, in the creases of my boots, in my mind,” Ambrose says. “I’m quite familiar with the location.”

He points out that the authors only found six tiny glass shards matching the chemical signature of the Toba eruption, while there were far more volcanic shards found 5,000 miles away in South Africa. The shards at Dhaba, or even the tools, could have been carried to the site by the Son River or other geologic processes, he says.

“You can’t call it an archaeological site. You can call it a geological site that has archaeological artefacts in it,” Ambrose says. He also isn’t convinced that the tools found at Dhaba were made by early modern humans, especially because no one has found human fossils from the same time period near the tools.

“It takes close, careful forensic scrutiny and tedium to show that this is what the evidence actually shows,” he argues.

Petraglia counters that the ash fragments support the dates calculated for the sediment layers and provide additional evidence that the stone tools overlap with the Toba event, but the study team does acknowledge that the glass shards could have been carried in from nearby sites. He adds that this population from India didn’t necessarily contribute genes to modern human populations; they may well have died out or been replaced by later migrations.

“We don’t dispute the fact that there was an increase in modern humans after 60,000 years ago,” Petraglia says. “What we are arguing is the idea that modern humans only spread out of Africa once is wrong.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/did-early-humans-in-india-survive-a-supervolcano/ar-BB10sSLT

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This ‘wonder chicken’ walked the Earth with dinosaurs

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Twenty years ago, near the border between Belgium and the Netherlands, an amateur fossil hunter named Maarten van Dinther picked up a featureless block of rock the size of a pack of cards. Though he didn’t know it at the time, the little slab contained a tiny and perfect skull from the oldest direct relative of modern birds ever discovered, a fowl that walked the Earth with dinosaurs.

The animal, affectionately dubbed the ‘wonder chicken’ by the international team of scientists that analyzed the fossil, lived 66.7 million years ago, just 700,000 years before the asteroid impact that killed off all non-avian dinosaurs. Named Asteriornis in a paper published today in Nature, the species—known from fossils of its hind limbs in addition to its skull—has features similar to both ducks and chickens, suggesting it was related to the shared ancestor of both groups.

“This is an extraordinary and exciting find, which reveals new insights in a very poorly known chapter of avian evolution,” says Gerald Mayr, an ornithologist and expert on bird evolution at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, who was not part of the new study.

Asteriornis was a long-legged shorebird that could probably fly and likely combed the beaches of late Cretaceous Europe, which then had strings of islands in warm and shallow seas and a climate similar to the present-day Bahamas.

Contemporary of T. rex

“This is the first time we've seen the well-preserved skull of a modern bird from the age of dinosaurs,” says study lead author Daniel Field, a palaeontologist at the University of Cambridge. “Asteriornis provides us with our clearest glimpse yet of what modern birds were like at the … the point in time when T. rex and Triceratops were still alive.”

The 66.7-million-year-old fossil comes from the Northern Hemisphere, while all other remains of modern birds from the Cretaceous period have been from the Southern Hemisphere. Such fossils include the bones of a duck-like species named Vegavis, which were found in 66.5-million-year-old rocks of the Antarctic Peninsula and described in 2005.

While many birds lived alongside the dinosaurs, the majority were members of archaic groups, such as the toothed Enantiornithes, which went extinct along with most of the larger land animals. All modern birds emerged from a single group called the Neornithes, which appeared toward the end of the Cretaceous. 

“The specimen is beautiful, the first really nice Neornithine from the Cretaceous,” says Jingmai O’Connor, an expert on fossil birds at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China, who was not part of the new study.

Until now, most fossils of birds from the Cretaceous that were related to living species have been “fragmentary and dubious,” she says, but the new discovery hints at the potential to find additional well-preserved modern bird relatives that lived prior to the impact and extinction event.

Anatomy of a ‘wonder chicken’

Asteriornis likely resembled the last common ancestor of Anseriformes, an order of birds including ducks and geese, and Galliformes, such as chickens and turkeys. “We knew already that these clades split during the Cretaceous, so we knew the ancestors to these groups were around,” O’Connor says. “But now palaeontologists have finally found one.”

The skulls of living chickens and ducks “are very different in the present day, so the skull of Asteriornis provides the first glimpse we’ve ever had at what the skull of the most recent common ancestor of these groups probably looked like,” Field says.

Other living bird groups that are thought to have appeared during the Cretaceous period include the Paleognath birds, such as ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries. Paleognaths, Anseriformes, and Galliformes are some of the deepest branches in the family tree of modern birds, and many other bird groups may not have appeared until after the asteroid impact.

A chance discovery

After finding the ‘wonder chicken’ fossils in 2000, van Dinther donated the specimens to the Natural History Museum of Maastricht in the Netherlands. The curator of that museum and co-author of the new study, John Jagt, sent the four small blocks of rock with limb bones poking out to Field in 2018.

From the outward appearance of the fossils, Field had low hopes of finding anything more exciting than broken limb bones. But birds from the late Cretaceous are rare, so he decided to run the fossils through a high-resolution CT scanner to visualize what was concealed within the rock.

He and one of his PhD students, Juan Benito, were staggered to discover “a beautifully preserved, nearly complete, 3D skull of a modern bird,” Field says. “It is the first modern bird skull from the entire Mesozoic era, and one of the best-preserved fossil bird skulls of any age.”

The discovery was one of the most exciting moments of Field’s scientific career to date, he says. The study authors named the new species after Asteria, the Greek Titan goddess of falling stars, who transformed herself into a quail—an appropriate name for a bird that lived shortly before the impact that marked the end of the era of dinosaurs, Field says.

Piecing together avian history

A number of finds in recent years have shed light on the prehistoric origins of living bird groups and how these animals managed to survive one of the biggest extinction events in Earth’s history. Fossil birds from both New Zealand and Antarctica that lived shortly after the impact were described as species in the past few years, Mayr says.

Because many of the oldest fossils of modern birds are from the Southern Hemisphere, including the previous record-holder for the oldest modern bird, Vegavis from Antarctica, some palaeontologists suggested that modern birds originated on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana during the time of the dinosaurs. But this new discovery of an even older bird than Vegavis in the Northern Hemisphere throws a wrench into this theory.

“At this point, I think the only thing we can say for sure is that the geographic origins of modern birds are truly mysterious,” Field says. “Only future fossil discoveries will be able to tell us where on Earth modern birds originated.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/this-wonderchicken-walked-the-earth-with-dinosaurs/ar-BB11mQWU#image=BB11mQWU_1|3

[CaaC (John)+]

Discovery in Tomb Reveals Ancient Game of Donkey Polo

© Image: S. Hu et al., 2020/Antiquity (a) and (b) Donkey pottery figures previously found in Xi’an, (c) Tang Dynasty drawing of donkeys used for hauling.

Archaeologists in China have unearthed a tomb belonging to a 9th-century noblewoman who was buried alongside her donkeys, which she likely rode while playing an ancient version of polo.

New research published this week in Antiquity describes the tomb of Cui Shi, an Imperial Chinese noblewoman who died in 878 CE. Her tomb was found eight years ago in Xi’an, China and appears to have been badly looted. Thankfully, some pieces of little value were left in the tomb, including a stone epitaph that identified the tomb as belonging to Cui Shi, the wife of an esteemed governor.

Much to the surprise of the archaeologists, this elite member of society was buried alongside three donkeys, which the researchers say is the first physical evidence of donkey polo dating back to this time period. Tang Dynasty (618 CE to 907 CE) texts describe the use of donkeys for this ancient sport, but archaeological evidence had been lacking until now. The new paper was led by Songmei Hu from the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology in Xi’an, China.

Donkeys were a critical resource in ancient times, enabling trade and the transportation of goods (both for commerce and the military), in addition to their use on farms. As for their use in entertainment and leisure activities, not so much is known. The new research is important in that it highlights a rare and unusual role played by donkeys in Imperial China, while also providing a glimpse into the life of high-status Imperial Chinese women.

What’s more, the use of these animals as grave goods points to a potential spiritual role for donkeys as well. The donkeys were buried alongside Cui Shi “so that they could accompany [her] spirit into the afterlife,” according to the new research. To the Imperial Chinese, donkeys were far more than just beasts of burden.

Polo is traditionally played on horseback, and the pastime can be traced back to ancient Persia (now Iran) and the Parthian Empire (circa 247 BCE to 224 CE), according to the researchers. The sport eventually spread to central China and the Tibetan Plateau by the 7th century.

Xi’an was the capital city and a major cultural and economic centre of the Tang Dynasty. Donkeys played an important role as pack animals, but citizens sometimes used these animals for the sport of donkey polo, known as Lvju in Imperial China.

© Image: S. Hu et al., 2020/Antiquity Cross-sections of donkey bones found in the tomb, specifically the humerus.

“Considered a prestigious sport, and originally important for training cavalry, polo was played on horseback by the military and the Tang court in Xi’an, and was esteemed by many Tang emperors,” wrote the authors. “The game, however, was dangerous and occasionally fatal, as the death of Emperor Muzong attests (reigned 821–824). Donkey polo, which used smaller, steadier donkeys rather than horses, became an alternative favourite participation sport for elite women and older individuals, as well as for the less affluent.”

The tomb of Cui Shi was made from brick and featured an entrance, a corridor, and a single burial chamber. In addition to the stone epitaph, the archaeologists found a lead stirrup and walls decorated with figures depicting servants and musicians. The remains of four cattle were also found in the tomb, in addition to the three donkey skeletons.

Written texts from the period describe Cui Shi, who died at age 59, and her husband, Bao Gao, a governor of two districts and an avid horse polo player. Bao Gao was once promoted by the emperor to participate in an important match and even lost an eye to the game, showing just how dangerous the sport really was and why some people chose to play the game on donkeys instead of horses, the authors wrote in the paper.

The analysis showed that all three donkeys were over the age of six when they died, so they would’ve been at a suitable age for the sport. What’s more, they were a bit undersized compared to those used for hauling. Radiocarbon dating placed the animals to the same time period as Cui Shi. The donkeys were “therefore buried at the same time as the occupant of the tomb, although we cannot be certain that the donkeys were used by Cui Shi herself,” wrote the authors in the study, adding that it’s unlikely that the donkeys were added to the tomb at a later date.

The scientists also measured the amount of biomechanical stress exerted onto the donkey bones over the course of their lifetimes, namely the humerus shaft. The authors hypothesized that “if these donkeys were used for polo, shaft geometry would more closely resemble that of wild asses, with locomotion that would be characterised by acceleration, deceleration and turns, rather than the steadier, slower gait of pack donkeys.”

Results showed a pattern consistent with tight turns, including the kinds seen in polo. What’s more, the patterns were inconsistent with those seen in either wild or domestic donkeys, including those used to carry heavy loads. That said, the researchers really had nothing to compare their samples to, as donkeys are no longer used for polo, so they caution that this part of their analysis isn’t fully conclusive.

Still, given the complete body of evidence, the authors conclude that donkeys were used by Cui Shi for sport, not transportation and that the animals were included in her tomb to ensure that she could continue to play polo in the afterlife.

It’s always a good thing when physical archaeological evidence is found to corroborate written texts. That said, more evidence could further bolster some of the claims made in the paper, such as the donkeys being used for polo and that Cui Shi herself was a donkey polo player.

Still, the thought of elaborately dressed Chinese nobles sitting atop donkeys while wielding polo sticks is pretty damned cool.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/discovery-in-tomb-reveals-ancient-game-of-donkey-polo/ar-BB11mP4S

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Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of dozens of mammoths have helped shed light on how ancient communities survived Europe's Ice Age.

Around 70 of these structures are known to exist in Ukraine and the west Russian Plains.

The bones at one site are more than 20,000 years old, a new analysis suggests, making it the oldest such circular structure built by humans discovered in the region.

Researchers said the bones were most likely sourced from animal graveyards, and the circle was then hidden by sediment and is now one foot below current surface level.

The majority of the bones found at the Russian Plains site are from mammoths.

A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior.

Scientists also found small numbers of reindeer, horse, bear, wolf, red fox and arctic fox bones.

For the first time, the archaeologists from the University of Exeter found remains of charred wood and other soft non-woody plant remains within the circular structure near the modern village of Kostenki, about 500km south of Moscow.

They say this indicates people were burning wood as well as bones for fuel, and the communities who lived there had learned where to forage for edible plants during the Ice Age.

© Provided by Evening Standard A mysterious bone circle made from the remains of dozens of mammoths on the Russian Plains (PA)

Dr Alexander Pryor, who led the study, said: "Kostenki 11 represents a rare example of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers living on in this harsh environment.

"What might have brought ancient hunter-gatherers to this site?

"One possibility is that the mammoths and humans could have come to the area en masse because it had a natural spring that would have provided unfrozen liquid water throughout the winter - rare in this period of extreme cold.

"These finds shed new light on the purpose of these mysterious sites.

"Archaeology is showing us more about how our ancestors survived in this desperately cold and hostile environment at the climax of the last Ice Age.

"Most other places at similar latitudes in Europe had been abandoned by this time, but these groups had managed to adapt to find food, shelter and water."

The last Ice Age, which swept northern Europe between 75-18,000 years ago, reached its coldest and most severe stage at around 23-18,000 years ago.

Most communities left the region, probably because of lack of prey to hunt and plant resources they depended upon for survival, scientists say.

Bone circles were eventually also abandoned as the climate continued to get colder and more inhospitable.

Previously, archaeologists have assumed the circular mammoth bone structures were used as dwellings, but the new study suggests this may not always have been the case.

The research, conducted by academics from the University of Exeter, University of Cambridge, Kostenki State Museum Preserve, University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Southampton, is published in the journal Antiquity.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/mysterious-bone-circles-made-of-mammoth-remains-help-explain-how-man-survived-ice-age/ar-BB11jA8R