Archaeology in the News

[leonardo]

Medieval Cemetery Discovered in Finland

https://www.archaeology.org/news/11840-2...l-cemetery

[leonardo]

Thor's hammer part of Viking finds returning to Thetford

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-62096032

[JMcB]

Ancient Egyptian temple ceiling restoration complete

Experts uncovered hundreds of mythological and astronomical figures in five-year joint project between the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the University of Tübingen



Left to right: Orion, Sothis/Sirius and Anukis, above them the sky goddess Nut swallowing the evening sun


Experts from Egypt and Germany have finished restoring the ceiling of the Temple of Esna. Working over a period of five years, 30 specialists under the direction of Ahmed Emam cleaned the dirt and soot off hundreds of figures and astronomical representations, revealing them once more in their original colors. “The completion of the ceiling restoration marks the project’s first and perhaps most important milestone," says Professor Christian Leitz of the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Tübingen. "In the next few years, we want to focus on removing soot from the interior walls of the Pronaos and the remaining columns,” he says.

The restoration of the Temple of Esna is a joint project between the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the University of Tübingen. On the Egyptian side, project management was in the hands of Dr. Hisham El-Leithy. The colorful ceiling reliefs show gods, mythological figures and representations of the sun, moon, signs of the zodiac, and various astronomical constellations. In addition to the colors, the restoration brought to light almost 200 ink inscriptions that were previously completely unknown. These inscriptions helped researchers identify many of the images depicted.



For the rest, see:

https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/university/n...-complete/

[leonardo]

MUNICH WAS DENSELY POPULATED DURING THE IRON AGE

IN A PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT ISSUED BY THE BAVARIAN STATE OFFICE FOR MONUMENT PRESERVATION, ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE UNCOVERED EVIDENCE INDICATING THAT MUNICH, LOCATED IN BAVARIA, GERMANY, WAS DENSELY POPULATED DURING THE IRON AGE.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/10/mu...age/148922

[Ioas]

Ancient dog paw print found in Roman fort

https://www.newsweek.com/ancient-dog-paw...ss-1810753

[leonardo]

New research reveals that Baltic amber was transported to the most westerly region of the continent more than 5,000 years ago
A team of scientists has identified the oldest pieces of Baltic amber ever found on the Iberian Peninsula, revealing that this luxury material used in jewellery and handicrafts around the world was already being imported more than 5,000 years ago.

https://arkeonews.net/new-research-revea...years-ago/

[Isidro]

The ruins of an “incredibly rare” 5,000-year-old tomb have been uncovered on one of the Scottish Orkney Islands, National Museums Scotland said in a statement on Tuesday.

The excavation at Holm, East Mainland, Orkney, revealed a stone structure accessed through a 7-meter (23-foot) -long passage and traces of a cairn – or pile of stones – that would have covered it, representing the “pinnacle of Neolithic engineering in northern Britain,” the statement said.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/tomb-n...index.html

[Isidro]

https://www.transformeurope1riva2023.com/

International Conference
The Transformation of Europe in the Third Millennium BC
Riva del Garda, Trento, Italy
- Congress Center -
25 – 28 October 2023

Abstracts:
https://www.transformeurope1riva2023.com...852218.pdf

[Isidro]

https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/7/3/51

How Mitochondrial DNA Can Write Pre-History: Kinship and Culture in Duero Basin (Spain) during Chalcolithic and Bronze Age
by Sara Palomo-Díez 1,2,*ORCID,Ángel Esparza-Arroyo 3,Olga Rickards 4ORCID,Cristina Martínez-Labarga 4 andEduardo Arroyo-Pardo 1,2ORCID

[Piquerobi]

Synagogue in Utrera (near Seville), Spain, uncovered:

Before this building in Spain was a nightclub, it was a hospital, a church, and a school. But archaeologists have recently determined that, originally, the structure was a medieval Jewish synagogue — one of only five remaining in all of Spain.

Archaeologists first examined the building in 2021 after they came upon a description left by a 17th-century priest and historian named Rodrigo Caro. In 1604, Caro described Utrera, a municipality in southwest Spain not far from Seville, as a place where before his time "there were only foreign people and Jews there, for which reason they called it Val de Judíos [Valley of the Jews], who had their synagogue where the Hospital de la Misericordia is now."

The Utrera synagogue was built in the 1300s and likely survived the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain because it was reused and added to over the years, according to Miguel Ángel de Dios, the archaeologist leading the scientific investigation of the building.

Anti-Jewish sentiment in Spain had been building throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, but at the end of the 14th century, a wave of violence against Jews culminated in the Massacre of 1391. A century later, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree of 1492, to expel all remaining Jews from Spain. Their goal was to curb the influence of practicing Jews over those who had converted following the 1391 massacre. In doing this, they fulfilled a goal long held by Tomás de Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, who feared that Jews had tainted blood and that superficial converts from Judaism were a threat to Catholic religious and social life.

The Utrera synagogue, whose identification was announced on Feb. 8, is therefore an incredibly rare example of medieval Jewish religious life in Spain. Mayor José María Villalobos called the press conference "an extraordinary event in an extraordinary building.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/medieval-syna...00162.html

[leonardo]

Comet Airburst Initiated Transition to Agriculture 12,800 Years Ago, Scientists Say
Around 12,800 years ago, Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating comet, triggering Younger Dryas climate change; this event created environmental conditions at Abu Hureyra, Syria, that favored the earliest known continuous cultivation of domestic-type grains and legumes, along with animal management, adding to the pre-existing practice of hunting-and-gathering.
https://www.sci.news/archaeology/younger...12357.html

See also, https://www.scienceopen.com/collection/9...b9995c56e5

[JMcB]

Ancient Egyptian cemetery holds rare 'Book of the Dead' papyrus and mummies
By Owen Jarus

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered an ancient cemetery that has stone sarcophagi, coptic jars and even a "Book of the Dead" scroll.


Archaeologists recently discovered a 3,500-year-old cemetery, including the remains of this mummy within its coffin. (Image credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities)


Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 3,500-year-old cemetery that contains a "Book of the Dead" papyrus.

The cemetery, at Tuna al-Gebel in central Egypt, dates back to the New Kingdom (circa 1550 to 1070 B.C.) and contains mummies, sarcophagi, amulets and numerous "shabti" (also called ushabti) figurines that were meant to serve the deceased in the afterlife, according to an Arabic statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The "Book of the Dead" papyrus found in the cemetery is about 43 to 49 feet (13 to 15 meters) long. Archaeologists from the ministry have been excavating the site since 2017 and found the cemetery recently.

The "Book of the Dead" is a modern-day name given to a variety of texts that served a number of purposes, including helping the dead navigate the underworld. The name the ancient Egyptians gave these texts is sometimes translated as the "Book of Coming Forth by Day." Copies of "Book of the Dead" excerpts were sometimes buried with the deceased.



For the rest, see:

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/...nd-mummies

[leonardo]

ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCAVATE A PARTIALLY SUBMERGED STOA COMPLEX IN ANCIENT SALAMIS
A TEAM OF UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONDUCTING RESEARCH ON THE EASTERN SHORES OF ANCIENT SALAMIS HAVE UNCOVERED A LARGE PARTIALLY SUBMERGED STOA COMPLEX THAT FORMED PART OF THE AGORA PUBLIC SPACE.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/10/ar...mis/149020

[leonardo]

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND A MEDIEVAL SKELETON WITH A PROSTHETIC HAND
ACCORDING TO A PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE BAVARIAN STATE OFFICE FOR MONUMENT PRESERVATION, A 15TH CENTURY BURIAL IN FREISING, GERMANY, HAS BEEN UNEARTHED CONTAINING A SKELETON WITH A PROSTHETIC HAND.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/10/ar...and/149026

[leonardo]

Depiction of Trojan War hero Ajax found in 1,800-year-old submerged building in Greece
The sunken public building was discovered in the underwater ruins of ancient Greek city.

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/...-in-greece