Archaeological News

[R011]

2 hours ago, lucklucky said:

So London was once a "relatively" civilized city...

And relatively European.  But people called Romanes they go the 'ouse and here we are.

[lucklucky]

[lucklucky]

 

[Ivanhoe]

Holy hand grenade, Batman!

https://www.livescience.com/ceramic-jar-hand-grenade-crusades
 

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A fragmented ceramic container uncovered in Jerusalem may be an early version of a hand grenade that warriors used during the Crusades around 900 years ago, a new study suggests. 

Researchers studied fragments of jars  known as sphero-conical containers — small, rounded vessels with a pointed end and an opening at the top. The sphero-conical shape was a common design for vessels in the Middle East at the time, the researchers said in a statement. The containers were used for a wide range of purposes, including to hold oils, medicines and mercury, to drink beer from, and more.

In the new study, researchers analyzed chemical remains found within four sphero-conical containers that were uncovered at a site called Armenian Gardens in Jerusalem and date to between the 11th and 12th centuries. The team found that one container was likely used to hold oil, another two stored scented materials, such as perfume or medicine, while the final container was laced with traces of explosive materials — hinting that it was used as a handheld explosive device. 

 

 

[bojan]

Careful with that theory.

KNO3 and NaNO3 were used as food preservatives and spices (at least in the Roman, if not classical Greek period) long before they have found use in gunpowder. Both will have some amount of other nitrates, especially Mg, Ca, Cu.

Sulphur was used for sterilizing of the wine barrels since at least Greek period.

[Ivanhoe]

Yuck! Another reason to drink beer.

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10867761/Ancient-Mayan-city-filled-palaces-pyramids-plazas-unearthed-Mexico.html
 

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The ruins of an ancient Mayan city filled with palaces, pyramids and plazas have been unearthed on a construction site near Merida on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Known as Xiol, which means 'Spirit of Man' in Mayan, the pre-Columbian city is thought to have been home to around 4,000 people between 600 and 900 A.D.

It has features of the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, archaeologists said, which is common in the southern Yucatan Peninsula but rare near Merida.

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10867645/Archaeologists-unearth-colonial-era-cemetery-Peru.html

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Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of 42 humans in a cemetery next to a Peruvian hospital that dates back to the 16th century, when the country first became part of the Spanish empire. 

The skeletons were found in the courtyard of Hospital Real de San Andres, a former hospital in the centre of Lima, the capital of Peru. 

Built in 1552 specifically for Spanish patients, the historic building is considered to be the oldest hospital in both Peru and South America. 

 

 

[MiloMorai]

Archaeologists discover passageways in 3,000-year-old Peruvian temple (msn.com)

A team of archaeologists has discovered a network of passageways under a more than 3,000-year-old temple in the Peruvian Andes.

Chavin de Huantar temple, located in the north-central Andes, was once a religious and administrative center for people across the region.

The passageways were found earlier in May and have features believed to have been built earlier than the temple's labyrinthine galleries, according to John Rick, an archaeologist at Stanford University who was involved in the excavation.

[sunday]

https://www.livescience.com/rare-leather-armor-found-china-burial

Quote

About 2,500 years ago, a man in northwest China was buried with armor made of more than 5,000 leather scales, a military garment fashioned so intricately, its design looks like the overlapping scales of a fish, a new study finds.

The armor, which resembles an apron-like waistcoat, could be donned quickly without the help of another person. "It is a light, highly efficient one-size-fits-all defensive garment for soldiers of a mass army," said study lead researcher Patrick Wertmann, a researcher at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich.

The team called it an early example of bionics, or taking inspiration from nature for human technology. In this case, the fish-like overlapping leather scales "strengthen the human skin for better defence against blow, stab and shot," said study co-researcher Mayke Wagner, the scientific director of the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute and head of its Beijing office. 

 

[MiloMorai]

Mastodon Killed in Bloody Battle 13,200 Years Ago – Reveals Extinct Animal’s Annual Migration (msn.com)

Around 13,200 years ago, a roving male mastodon died in a bloody mating-season battle with a rival in what today is northeast Indiana, nearly 100 miles (160 km) from his home territory, according to the first study to document the annual migration of an individual animal from an extinct species.

The 8-ton (7,200 kg) adult, known as the Buesching mastodon, was killed when an opponent punctured the right side of his skull with a tusk tip, a mortal wound that was revealed to researchers when the animal’s remains were recovered from a peat farm near Fort Wayne in 1998.

[KV7]

On 12/11/2020 at 1:12 AM, Ivanhoe said:

I'm skeptical of the Mad Max thing. First off, compare pre-Roman Britain with other polytheistic Iron Age cultures; pretty typical AIUI. Then the Romans, with various benefits absorbed from Roman culture. Take away the Romans; do farmers living in nice wood huts, tilling prepared land, drinking mead etc., decide to return to hunter/gatherer mode? Seems inconsistent with human nature.

I imagine there had to be some development of farmers/fishermen vs. outlaw raiders, but having seen the benefits of organization and defense, the raiders may have faced some tough sledding.

A return to 'hunter gatherer mode' happen sometimes, but in any case this sort of shift isn't posited.  The standard story is that there is shift from an empire to chieftdoms, and the smaller polities fail to maintain certain technologies which are only feasible with a higher level of social organisation.

Most notably construction of the civic and monumental architecture (and the fine houses occupied by officials acculturated to Roman upper class expectations) typical of an empire stops being constructed and these building fall into ruins.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Podcast on the recent discoveries during the archaeological dig at Waterloo.

https://play.acast.com/s/dansnowshistoryhit/waterloo-uncovered-bones-from-the-battlefield

There are also some videos, albeit not long enough, of the excavations. As you can see, many of those doing the escavation are British Army veterans, some injured.

 

[Yama]

On 6/27/2022 at 10:50 AM, KV7 said:

A return to 'hunter gatherer mode' happen sometimes, but in any case this sort of shift isn't posited.  The standard story is that there is shift from an empire to chieftdoms, and the smaller polities fail to maintain certain technologies which are only feasible with a higher level of social organisation.

Most notably construction of the civic and monumental architecture (and the fine houses occupied by officials acculturated to Roman upper class expectations) typical of an empire stops being constructed and these building fall into ruins.

Even assuming some sort of 'collapse' of social order, it doesn't mean going back to hunter-gatherer lifestyle. By the time of Roman Empire, almost all of Europe had been agricultural, for something like 5000 years if not more: including Britain. Even the famous Bronze Age collapse didn't lead to abandonment of agriculture.

So, the Brits didn't descend to savagery when the Romans withdrew - they never left it 

Return to hunter-gathering generally happens only when environment changes so that farming becomes unviable, and probably usually doesn't mean that existing population changes their lifestyle: rather they abandon the site, and are replaced by existing hunter-gatherers who have lived on the frontier of the farming regions.

That can be seen in areas of major desertification (Sahara, most notably) and for example in Scandinavia, climate changing from warmer to colder and back again has led to observable oscillation of farming culture spreading and retreating along with climate shifts.

[Ivanhoe]

2 hours ago, Yama said:

 

So, the Brits didn't descend to savagery when the Romans withdrew - they never left it 

 

We can't expect much change from the locals post-Rome. Celts must have still been exhausted from their project that developed pants.

[KV7]

2 hours ago, Yama said:

Even assuming some sort of 'collapse' of social order, it doesn't mean going back to hunter-gatherer lifestyle. By the time of Roman Empire, almost all of Europe had been agricultural, for something like 5000 years if not more: including Britain. Even the famous Bronze Age collapse didn't lead to abandonment of agriculture.

So, the Brits didn't descend to savagery when the Romans withdrew - they never left it 

Return to hunter-gathering generally happens only when environment changes so that farming becomes unviable, and probably usually doesn't mean that existing population changes their lifestyle: rather they abandon the site, and are replaced by existing hunter-gatherers who have lived on the frontier of the farming regions.

That can be seen in areas of major desertification (Sahara, most notably) and for example in Scandinavia, climate changing from warmer to colder and back again has led to observable oscillation of farming culture spreading and retreating along with climate shifts.

It depends on the period and the existence of local states (which tend to crush HG peoples or at least deny the use of lands required to sustain such a way of life). At least for some time agriculture is a harder way to gain sustenance, and is taken up more out of a lack of choice than anything else.

One late case of abandonment of agriculture is in the Scandinavian neolithic, with the HG Pitted Ware culture replacing the neolithic Funnelbeaker culture in Coastal south-eastern Sweden. But here the richness of the marine resources (especially seals) seemed to enable quite high population density and the Funnelbeaker people even seemed to have been pushed towards fort building as a response to Pitted Ware military capacity.

Of course in the case of post-Roman British isles such a shift is unthinkable, because agricultural chieftainships with iron age technology would easily be strong enough to defend arable lands from any sort of putative HG culture.

[Ssnake]

Not exactly archaeology, but still - the world, 1587:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2017/11/26/largest-early-world-map-monte-s-10-ft-planisphere-of-1587

[lucklucky]

Excellent Ssnake

[Rick]

1 hour ago, Ssnake said:

Not exactly archaeology, but still - the world, 1587:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2017/11/26/largest-early-world-map-monte-s-10-ft-planisphere-of-1587

Excellent! Great screensaver 

[Mikel2]

Amazing images.

[sunday]

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Quote

Construction workers employed in road building near the Onon River in the Khentii province of Mongolia, have discovered a mass ԍʀᴀvᴇ containing the remains of many ᴅozᴇɴs of human coʀᴘsᴇs lying upon a large rudimentary stone structure.

Forensic experts and archaeologists were called to the site, which was revealed to be a Mongolian royal tomb from the 13th century that the scientists believe to be Genghis Khan’s.

The team of scientists affiliated with the University of Beijing has concluded that the numerous skeletons ʙuʀιᴇᴅ on top of the structure were most likely the slaves who built it and who were then мᴀssᴀcʀᴇᴅ to keep the secret of the location.

(...)

 

[Ssnake]

Mongols and Egyptians knew how to celebrate burials.

[sunday]

35 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Mongols and Egyptians knew how to celebrate burials.

Looks like Mongols were better at hiding them.

[rmgill]

On 6/27/2022 at 3:50 AM, KV7 said:

A return to 'hunter gatherer mode' happen sometimes, but in any case this sort of shift isn't posited.  The standard story is that there is shift from an empire to chieftdoms, and the smaller polities fail to maintain certain technologies which are only feasible with a higher level of social organisation.

Failure of the Roman empire/Contraction/dissolution resulted in the roads no longer being maintained, bandits and raiders running amok, aqueducts no longer being maintained and thus no more baths/sewers to be maintained. 

 

[lucklucky]

https://www.popsci.com/science/sauropod-dinosaur-skeleton-discovery-portugal/