Archaeology in the News

[J Man]

Cattle in The Earliest European Cities Weren't Bred as Food

https://www.sciencealert.com/cattle-in-t...ed-as-food

[JonikW]

Mesolithic footprints have been investigated and documented in the Severn Estuary (between England and Wales), along with willow fish traps. 

I remember rambling out to a small island in the deep mud on the Welsh side as a seven or eight year old and  find it both astonishing and exciting that Mesolithic footprints could survive there, especially given that the Severn is so famous for its tidal range.

[JMcB]

Cult Mentality: SLU Professor Makes Monumental Discovery in Italy

by Jacob Born





Douglas Boin, Ph.D., a professor of history at Saint Louis University, made a major announcement at the annual meeting of the Archeological Institute of America, revealing he and his team discovered what they believe to be an ancient Roman temple that adds significant insights into the social change from pagan gods to Christianity within the Roman Empire.


“We found three walls of a monumental structure that evidence suggests belonged to a Roman temple that dates to Constantine's period,” Boin said. “It dates to the fourth century AD and if our team’s hypothesis is right, it will be a remarkable addition to the landscape of this corner of Italy. It will significantly aid in the understanding of the ancient town, the ancient townscape and city society in the later Roman Empire because it potentially shows the continuities between the classical pagan world and early Christian Roman world that often get blurred out or written out of the sweeping historical narratives.”

Boin, Dr. Letizia Ceccarelli, Politecnico di Milano, and the rest of the excavation team made the discovery over the summer. Boin, an expert in ancient Roman and its religious transitions, had been digging in the town of Spello, the famous medieval hilltop city about 20 minutes from Assisi and 2.5 hours north of Rome. Boin selected the town based on a rescript of a 4th century letter from Emperor Constantine to the townspeople regarding a religious holiday.

This rescript, which was discovered in the 18th century, allowed the people of Spello to celebrate a religious festival in their hometown rather than travel a great distance to another festival. However, in order to do so, the town was told it must erect a temple to Constantine’s divine ancestors, the Flavian family, and worship them, showcasing how multicultural Roman society was at the time.

[…]

“There's evidence from other places throughout the Roman world that Christian rulers supported imperial cult practices,” Boin said. “We've known that pagans worshiped at their temples in the fourth century, but those findings have all been small and inconsequential. And we've known that Christians supported the imperial cult, and we’ve known that without any sense of where it would have happened. This perceived temple would bridge those two landmarks, and in that respect, it is unlike any temple that I know about from the Mediterranean world of the fourth century Roman Empire. Any study of the imperial cult in the fourth century Roman Empire is now going to have to take account of this temple, which is an incredible discovery to make.”

With the discovery, Boin now can show how the societal changes of the time moved very slowly. Though Constantine was the first Roman emperor to famously convert to Christianity, it would take almost 70 years for Christianity to become the official religion of the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Theodosius. During that time it still took many convincing and gradual shifts for those who worshiped pagan gods to convert to Christianity.


For the rest, see:

https://www.slu.edu/news/2024/january/im...-ruins.php

and or:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180983559/

[JonikW]

This has had a fair bit of media attention in the UK today, including Alice Roberts on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. BBC news report:

"New tests have confirmed a discovery which challenges the understanding of life in Britain after the Roman Empire.
In 2020, Britain's first known 5th Century mosaic was uncovered at Chedworth Roman Villa in Cheltenham.
New soil samples taken from underneath the mosaic revealed the tiles could not have been laid before 400AD.
Experts say this provides further evidence that sophisticated life at the manor had continued for decades after the country had entered the Dark Ages."

Must say, I personally would have been surprised if Roman culture hadn't continued into the fifth century in the West. I'm sure I'm not the only one here, but nice to see actual evidence of continuity.

[JMcB]

Israeli Archaeologists Find Half of Very Early Coin Near Jerusalem

The coin from 2,550 years ago, found in a First Temple-era home by Jerusalem, had been bisected, suggesting it was relegated to pre-money status of paying by weight in silver


The rare coin, providing evidence of an intermediate stage in the evolution of commerce.Credit: Emil Aladjem/Israel Antiquities Authority



An extremely rare early coin from over 2,500 years ago was found in the Judean Hills, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Wednesday.

The artifact dates to only a couple of centuries, roughly speaking, after the invention of coinage. But its user may not have known what it was. The coin had been intentionally cut in half, archaeologists say, suggesting it may have been used as "hacksilver" – a form of pre-money currency based on weight.






The rare coin – or rather, its bisected remnant – was discovered during a salvage excavation ahead of roadworks in Tzur Hadassah, and was found by Semyon Gendler, the acting Judean district archaeologist with the IAA. It was unearthed within a house from the First Temple era, also known as the Persian Period, with yet more evidence of trading: a one-shekel weight.

Only about a dozen such early coins dating within a couple of centuries after the invention of coins have been found in Israeli excavations to date, says Dr. Robert Kool, head of the IAA's Numismatic Department. Actually, a few dozen have popped up in Israel so far, but the others haven't been provenanced: it isn't clear in what context they were found, he says.


For the rest of the story, see:

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2024...ce9be60000

[JMcB]

An Ancient Roman Arm Guard Has Been Reconstructed Like a ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ From Over 100 Fragments

The reconstructed artifact will go on view at the British Museum's "Legion: Life in the Roman Army."

Artnet News, January 22, 2024



Conservator Bethan Bryan with the Roman arm guard. Photo: © Duncan McGlynn.


For the first time in 2,000 years, a Roman arm guard can be seen in its entirety after a painstaking reconstruction that saw the assembly of dozens of found fragments. 

The piece of brass armor was first discovered in 1906 by antiquary James Curle at the ancient Roman fort Trimontium, near Melrose within the Scottish Borders. It was found in more than 100 fragments, which nonetheless were in good condition, some with leather straps still attached. The pieces have been in the collection of the National Museums Scotland for more than a century.



Fragments of the Roman brass arm guard. Photo: © Duncan McGlynn.


After bringing together fragments from across the collection, conservators in Edinburgh spent weeks rebuilding the arm guard using the extant pieces. The resulting completed artifact, noted Fraser Hunter, the principal curator of prehistoric and Roman archaeology at NMS, represents the most intact example of a Roman brass arm guard, allowing us a glimpse into military life in the Roman Empire.

“You can picture the legionary who once wore it,” he said about the armor. “It was both protection and status symbol—brass was expensive and would have gleamed like gold on his sword arm. It offers a vivid connection to this important period when Scotland sat on the Roman Empire’s northern frontier.”


The reconstructed Roman arm guard. Photo: © Duncan McGlynn.


For the rest, see:

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/roman-...ed-2421778

&

https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibition...roman-army

[JMcB]

Arkeonews

25 January 2024



Serbian Archaeologists Unearth Roman Triumphal Arch Dedicated to Emperor Caracalla





Archaeologists in Serbia have unearthed an ancient Roman triumphal arch dating back to the third century at Viminacium, a Roman city near the town of Kostolac, 70 km (45 miles) east of Belgrade.

Viminacium (Viminacium) or Viminatium, was a major city (provincial capital) and military camp of the Roman province of Moesia (today’s Serbia), and the capital of Moesia Superior.

It included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Albania, northern parts of North Macedonia (Moesia Superior), Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobruja, and small parts of Southern Ukraine (Moesia Inferior).

Professor Miomir Korac, one of Serbia’s leading archaeologists, said that the discovery was made during excavations of the main street of Viminacium, the capital of the Roman province of Moesia.

“This is the first such triumphal arch in this area..,” Korac told Reuters on Monday.



The site of an ancient Roman triumphal arch that was discovered by archaeologists at Viminacium, a former Roman settlement, near the town of Kostolac. Photo: Serbia Archaeological Institute


The solution to the riddle – to whom the triumphal gate was dedicated, scientists found when they dug up part of a marble slab with the ruler’s name carved from the almost frozen ground. It was Emperor Caracalla, who grew up in military camps following his father Septimus Severus on campaigns and participated in battles from the age of 15.

Archaeologists, based on the material already found, determined that the triumphal arch was built at the end of the second or the latest at the beginning of the third century AD.


For the rest of the article, see:

https://arkeonews.net/serbian-archaeolog...caracalla/

[Sailgios]

This January's edition of NG features an article about the Roman funerary stele of the nearby city of Viseu which depicts a local warrior in typical Galaico-Lusitanian fashion, despite this region being typically considered (marginally) outside the Gallaecian area. It may be that features that specified the Gallaecian populi within the Lusitanian area were more widespread than previously thought.

In any case, here's the article translated by Google:




The warrior of Viseu and the Lusitanian language

In 2021, in the foundations of a building on Rua Direita de Viseu, an enigmatic decorated stele was recovered that opened a tenuous portal to a Pre-Roman world and a long-extinct language.




Since 2016, archaeologist Fátima Costa, from the company Eon Indústrias Criativas, coordinated a safeguard intervention in the old Orfeão de Viseu building, in the middle of Rua Direita. In the circulatory system of the city of Beira, this is the main artery that since ancient times has pumped blood from the top of the hill to the base. It was once called Rua das Tendas and the Roman cardo passed through here, certainly overlapping an Iron Age settlement of relevant dimensions. With the construction of the 15th century wall, it became Rua Direita – not because it traces a straight line (far from it!) but because it is central and connects the two city gates. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Viseu has been in the process of reconciling itself with its past. 

Until then, with honourable exceptions, the first pages of the city's great history book were silent, merged together like an old manuscript that no one had ever taken apart. Since 2000, the dozens of urban interventions in the historic center have been monitored by archaeologists who, little by little, began to fill the void. Just remember that, in 1968, in a pioneering article on Urban Geography written by Orlando Ribeiro, all the historical layers of occupation of Rua Direita were peeled away, but the author did not venture beyond the medieval border. It was as if Viseu had not existed before the Suevi and Visigoths or the constitution of the local diocese.


The archaeological excavation took place in the area of the former headquarters of Orfeão de Viseu. The building suffered a violent fire in 1923, which forced a hasty reconstruction. The warrior's stele was placed face down, reused as building material for a wall.

Persistence paid off. Little by little, traces of Roman occupation appeared (which the archaeologist Amorim Girão already anticipated in 1925), to the point that the archaeologist Pedro C. Carvalho, from the University of Coimbra, already proposed the location of the Roman forum in the place today occupied by the Cathedral, by Grão Vasco Museum and the Misericórdia Church. A possible amphitheater was also recently proposed between Rua Direita and Rua do Gonçalinho, alongside extensive traces of occupation – from votive monuments to funerary assets – and other material evidence of the Roman presence. 

In between, an older narrative also emerged about an Iron Age settlement that left significant material remains and a tenuous cultural echo perpetuated by those who, ultimately, were responsible for its erasure from history. But we get ahead of ourselves. This narrative has its decisive moment one morning in 2021, when Fátima Costa and archaeologist Pedro Sobral de Carvalho finally decided to lift a stone that had long intrigued them at the base of a wall at Orfeão's headquarters. 

The building itself is a bit different from the medieval character of Rua Direita. As Orlando Ribeiro had already noted, this artery is one of those that best preserves the traditional physiognomy and functions of classical medieval streets, while at the same time performing the symbolic function of the old city in the modern context. Orfeão had taken the place of Montepio Viseense which, in turn, had settled on Rua Direita at the beginning of the 20th century. The acquisition of two contiguous lots had accelerated a construction program for the new headquarters, which probably borrowed all the stone materials available on site. 

It would have been more convincing for narrative purposes if the piece had been a complete surprise, but, in reality, Fátima Costa already had an idea of what was on the face down, positioned in a kind of manhole. Noticing the quality of the flattening work on the back face, the archaeologist managed to insert a cell phone into the small trench and photograph the hidden face. “I immediately saw that there were inscriptions,” she says with a smile. “But I wasn’t prepared for the rest.”

When the piece was finally turned over, it displayed a face that perhaps had not been seen for almost two millennia. Measuring 99 centimeters, it was fragmented at the top, which resulted in the probable loss of the warrior's sculpted body – it is estimated that it could have been another meter longer. 

The surface that has come down to us presents a broad round shield, the size of which exceeds the width of the stele itself. One hand holds a dagger and the other is spread diagonally across the chest. Perhaps not on the day itself, but archaeologists could not help but remember Strabo's vigorous description, in “Geography”, of the Lusitanians' weaponry: “They have a small shield two feet in diameter, concave in front, held by straps , as it does not have shackles or other types of handles. They also have a dagger or a cleaver” – wrote the Greek author, a few years before Augustus founded the first three Roman provinces in the Iberian Peninsula and dealt the final blow to indigenous cultures resistant to the power of Rome.

The symbolic similarities were suggestive, and not just with classical sources. The statues of the Galician-Lusitanian warriors from Castro de Outeiro Lesenho (Boticas/Ribeira de Pena), discovered in the 19th century, have similar weapons and even the way they hold the weapon with the right hand is significantly similar. The piece was “communicating” with archaeologists, but it would still take time for the full message to be understood.


Discovered in the Castro de Outeiro Lesenho, in Boticas, the statue of this warrior must date back to the 1st century AD and is particularly relevant to the debate on the new piece as it presents an undeniable similarity in terms of weapons: the shield and the dagger. Three more statues of the same type are associated with the site.

“There was also a registration and then we realized that we had to call on other specialists”, says Fátima Costa. “In a way, the safeguard archaeologist works like a family doctor, carrying out the first screening of the cases he finds and referring the most intricate situations to the specialist.” In this case, the experts were the epigraphist Armando Redentor, also from the University of Coimbra, and the archaeologist Pedro C. Carvalho, who in recent years has reconstructed Roman Viseu and Iron Age Viseu based on archaeological finds from previous decades. 

An extinct language is like a chest full of treasures to which the key has been lost. In most cases, in the absence of active speakers, it is lost forever. The Lusitanian language could be another dead branch of the great tree of human linguistic diversity, but it was precariously preserved by the culture that overlapped it. With Romanization, a new culture was imposed, a new pantheon of gods, a new political regime and a new language, Latin, based on a current practice of fixing texts through writing. Epigraphy became common in the Roman world, while indigenous languages and dialects were mainly oral.

Like castaways lost in a sea of opposite current, only five or six inscriptions in the Lusitanian language have reached us (two or three in Spanish territory, in the Cáceres area, the whereabouts of only one being known; one in Lamas de Moledo; another in Cabeço das Fráguas; and a last one on a mobile support found in Arronches). Without exception, they were all produced under Roman rule, using the Latin alphabet adapted to the structure of the pre-Roman language. “People move and dialects and languages move with them, they are not stagnant”, recalls Armando Redentor. “In the inscriptions that came to us in the so-called Lusitanian language, we have written, for example, theonymy (the names of the deities), other vocabulary and some verbal forms. Everything that is anthroponymic (the names of individuals) already appears Latinized, although some reveal indigenous origin.”


Over the course of four hundred years, this inscription has been subject to partial and even fanciful interpretations. The architect Rogério de Azevedo even saw in the text the music of a Lusitanian hymn written in Greek characters. Nowadays, after readings by H. Balmori, António Tovar, Maria de Lourdes Albertos, João Inês Vaz and Jürgen Untermann, among others, it is taken for granted that it is an inscription of a religious nature, recording the sacrifice of animals to indigenous deities by an entity identified as the Veamnicori (or Veaminicori). Written in the Lusitanian language, it is plausibly from the 1st century AD.

In 2009, during construction work on the funicular in the center of Viseu, a few meters from the location of this find, a very important ara was found. In the inscription, Albino, son of Quéreas, invoked the Vissaieigensian gods and goddesses, fulfilling the vow of building an altar for them. The play perhaps belonged to the forum itself and, although written entirely in Latin, it opened a key to the transition experienced in the city at the end of the 1st century AD. 

“By consecrating indigenous deities in the main public space, the inscription suggests that the previous sacredness was maintained and that older cults were allowed in the heart of the Roman city”, says Pedro C. Carvalho. “I believe that in Viseu we already have clear evidence of a meeting of cultures, of cultural hybridism, where pre-Roman manifestations (Lusitanian or not) coexisted with the new Roman world. In the center and at the top of the city, an area between rocks was purposely left intact by the construction of the forum. In the current city, behind the Cathedral, these massive granite outcrops can still be seen. These are the remains of the ancient mound, probably sacred to the Iron Age settlement. It could have been razed as happened in other Roman cities, but it was preserved. What better demonstration could there be of the desire to maintain a sacred space from pre-Roman times in the Roman city?”

The inscription now found states: “Monument (sepulchral). Lobesio, son of Caucirus.” Lobésio, with slight variations, is one of the anthroponyms whose geographic distribution is basically Lusitanian. In this inscription, the name ending in “-os” caught the attention of Armando Redentor, as an indicator that it could be an ending from a pre-Roman language, possibly Celtic or Lusitanian, in a Lusitanian geographical context. “In reality, we know little about this language and it is important to be careful with categorical statements. From the singular, we know the dative and accusative of the Lusitanian language, but not the nominative or genitive endings. We need more inscriptions to complement knowledge about the Lusitanian language and clarify the enigmas about its origins and influences”, he says. 

All the inscriptions known so far in the Lusitanian language indicate events of a public nature, probably repeated regularly (as is the case with the Cabeço das Fráguas sanctuary) or with references to animal sacrifices in honor of specific gods of the indigenous pantheon. Until now, no funerary inscription was known, but the stele is a monument usually associated with funerary commemoration in necropolis contexts. What necropolis could it be associated with? 

Research in Viseu has already identified three necropolises from the Roman period, one of which is on Rua Silva Gaio, approximately 750 meters from the site of this find, although there was a forum in between. Epigraphists have long known that words fly, writings stay and… stones with inscriptions tend to move and be reused in later contexts. We will never know who Lobésio was or why such a refined monument was dedicated to him. He would certainly be a member of the local elite, pressed between the tectonic forces of two civilizations. Pedro C. Carvalho has a curious interpretation: “We are coming to the conclusion that, on the outskirts of the Empire, there were different versions of being Roman, derived from the maintenance of different manifestations of the indigenous cultural substrate. We tend to forget that in the Iberian Peninsula, as in other regions, bilingualism would occur. Native languages did not disappear overnight, nor did individuals wake up one day as Romans.”

Cautious about the dating of a reused inscription (and therefore without solid dating elements), Redentor suggests that this warrior stele must date from the beginning of the first century of our era, while the ara of the Vissaieigensian gods (which, incidentally, was decisive to inquire about the city's autochthonous name, Vissaium) dates from the end of that century or even the beginning of the next. “This reveals an interesting continuity in the use of the language and proves that the record of Paleo-Hispanic languages is particularly evident in the field of religion – of theonymy and religious formulas”, he says. 

“This new registration points to a still early phase of linguistic contact in which skills in the new language may not yet be complete”, adds Redentor. “Ara, in turn, tells the story of a moment in which Latin would have already been adopted as a new language, although remnants of the ancient, pre-Roman language remained.” When two languages meet, one with an oral nature and the other with a marked written expression, it is clear that the written language – even more so from the dominant culture – will prevail. However, inscriptions like this open a small portal to a world that has been lost, since language is, of all aspects of a culture, probably the one that leaves the least material trace. 

The fighting leaves marks on the skeletons of soldiers and a broad material culture of weapons; religious practices leave behind inscriptions, lamps and sacred spaces themselves; beliefs and superstitions are witnessed by amulets and even curse tablets. The tongue, however, is like a thread of silk that, once cut, is difficult to rebuild. 

“On the other hand, it is also true that we only know the Lusitanian language when it became written, using the Latin alphabet”, recalls Pedro C. Carvalho. “And the same happened with pre-Roman deities. We only know them because they continued to be objects of worship in Roman times and their name was engraved in stone. We would not know that in indigenous cults there were hundreds or even thousands of deities, nor would we know their names, if it were not for these reports and these invocations from Roman times.” 

Lobésio perhaps only aspired to be remembered by his closest companions and family. Perhaps he spoke in Lusitanian (if the evidence points to that language) and already understood Latin, inserting himself – without knowing it – into what the epigraphist José Cardim Ribeiro called the “magma of Indo-European languages that was being forged in Europe” in Antique. He could be a warrior skilled in the use of the biglobular-hilted dagger that had so frightened the Roman soldiers in the generation of his father, Caucirus. He certainly knew someone with the wit to adapt the Latin alphabet to the register of his language. Through a strange intercultural channel, facilitated by the literacy of the new winning culture in the city where he lived, his message traveled through time and reached the present day, like a remote echo of an Iron Age culture that we are beginning to unravel. What else is hidden underground in the city of Viseu?




Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.pt/histor...itana_4578

[JMcB]

Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll!

The 2000-year-old scroll discusses music, food, and how to enjoy life’s pleasures.

February 5th, 2024


We’re announcing the winners of the Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize. We’ll look at how they did it, what the scrolls say, and what comes next.

[…]



Less than a year later, in December 2023, they succeeded. Finally, after 275 years, we can begin to read the scrolls:



Text from PHerc.Paris. 4 (Institut de France), unseen for 2,000 years. Roughly 95% of the scroll remains to be read.


[…]


What does the scroll say?

To date, our efforts have managed to unroll and read about 5% of the first scroll. Our eminent team of papyrologists has been hard at work and has achieved a preliminary transcription of all the revealed columns. We now know that this scroll is not a duplicate of an existing work; it contains never-before-seen text from antiquity. The papyrology team are preparing to deliver a comprehensive study as soon as they can. You all gave them a lot of work to do! Initial readings already provide glimpses into this philosophical text. From our scholars:

The general subject of the text is pleasure, which, properly understood, is the highest good in Epicurean philosophy. In these two snippets from two consecutive columns of the scroll, the author is concerned with whether and how the availability of goods, such as food, can affect the pleasure which they provide.

Do things that are available in lesser quantities afford more pleasure than those available in abundance? Our author thinks not: “as too in the case of food, we do not right away believe things that are scarce to be absolutely more pleasant than those which are abundant.” However, is it easier for us naturally to do without things that are plentiful? “Such questions will be considered frequently.”

Since this is the end of a scroll, this phrasing may suggest that more is coming in subsequent books of the same work. At the beginning of the first text, a certain Xenophantos is mentioned, perhaps the same man — presumably a musician — also mentioned by Philodemus in his work On Music.

Philodemus, of the Epicurean school, is thought to have been the philosopher-in-residence of the villa, working in the small library in which the scrolls were found.


There’s a lot more, so if you’re interested, see:

https://scrollprize.org/grandprize

[JMcB]

‘Flat-packed furniture for the next life’: Roman funerary bed found in London

First such piece to be found in Britain is ‘incredibly well-made’, say experts, and remarkably preserved

Esther Addley



The funerary bed being excavated and a reconstruction. It is the first funerary bed ever found in Britain. Photograph: Mola



Archaeologists in London have made the “exceptionally important” discovery of a complete wooden funerary bed, the first ever discovered in Britain.

The remarkably preserved bed, described as “unparalleled” by experts, was excavated from the site of a former Roman cemetery near Holborn viaduct, central London, alongside five oak coffins. Prior to this dig, only three Roman timber coffins in total have been found in the capital.

Wooden remains from the Roman era in Britain (AD43-410) rarely survive to the present day but, because the waterlogged burial site adjoins the now underground river Fleet, its graves were well preserved.

The funerary bed is made from high-quality oak and has carved feet and joints fixed with small wooden pegs. It was dismantled before being laid within the grave of an adult male in his late 20s or early 30s.


“It’s been quite carefully taken apart and stashed, almost like flat-packed furniture for the next life,” said Michael Marshall, an artefacts specialist with archaeologists Mola (Museum of London Archaeology) – although he stressed there was much about the burials that is yet to be studied. Excavations at the site continue.

Part of the site, outside the walls of the Roman city and 6 metres below the modern ground level, had been excavated in the 1990s. However, “the bed was a complete surprise, because we’ve never seen anything like it before”, said Marshall. While there are accounts of people being carried on beds in funeral processions, and sometimes depictions of them on tombstones, he said: “We didn’t know that people were buried in these kinds of Roman burials beds at all. That’s something that there is no previous evidence for from

For the rest of the article, see:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024...-in-london

[Andour]

Centuries-old letter by Japanese samurai Date Masamune found in west Japan.

YAMAGATA -- A document written by 16th century warlord Date Masamune, the first head of the Sendai Domain, was newly discovered at a museum in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, a Japanese university professor announced on Jan. 11.

Kenji Matsuo, a professor emeritus at Yamagata University in north Japan specializing in medieval Japanese history, determined that the document kept at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History was written by the famous daimyo from the Warring States period in the 15th-16th century, based on a seal he used in his later years, the content of the letter and records from other historical sources.

Matsuo estimated that the letter was sent to the hatamoto, or high-ranking samurai, Tsumaki Yoritoshi in 1635.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/202...na/024000c

[Radko]

Weapons of barbarian tribes from Roman times discovered near Hrubieszów

Iron spearheads, two battle axes and a wood-cutting axe are among the items discovered near Hrubieszów by treasure hunters. The weapons most likely come from Roman times and were used by warriors from barbarian tribes.

The Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments announced the discovery on social media.

According to the conservator, treasure hunters searching in the State Forests near Hrubieszów found a cluster of several iron artefacts. 'At first, due to the very strong corrosion covering the metal, additionally mixed with sand and mud, it was difficult to determine what these objects were,’ he says.

All the artefacts were located almost in one place, shallow in the forest floor, in an area degraded by heavy forestry equipment and partly by animal activity. 'These circumstances led to the discovery of initially one object on the surface, and another one a moment later. Several kilograms of shapeless, muddy, corroded iron were safely packed and taken from the forest with the intention of cleaning and determining the nature of the find,’ the conservator says.

The finders contacted the Hrubieszów museum, which received the entire find along with a report on the circumstances of the discovery and the approximate site location. 'Archaeologists from this Museum - Bartłomiej Bartecki and Anna Hyrchała - carried out a preliminary analysis and assessment of these finds. Moreover, the analysis of the Archaeological Image of Poland (the national and provincial register of archaeological monuments - PAP) documentation shows that so far there have been no known archaeological sites in the area of discovery of these artefacts,’ the conservator adds.

The discovery consists of a dozen or so items, including: iron spearheads (25.5 cm to 34.5 cm long, with the width of the leafy blade between 5 cm and 6.5 cm); two iron battle axes (one 23.5 cm long and 7 cm high, the other slightly smaller, 19 cm long and 5 cm high); one shaft-hole axe (or carpenter axe - this will most likely be determined only after conservation); and three items whose identification is currently very difficult (also requiring conservation).

Archaeologists already have a preliminary theory about the origin of the weapon. 'First of all, we are most likely dealing with weapons used by barbarian tribes during the times of the Roman Empire. Perhaps they were used by warriors who belonged to the so-called Przeworsk culture (1st century BCE - 2nd/3rd century CE), identified by archaeologists as members of the Vandal tribe, or the communities from the Gothic cultures (2nd/3rd century CE - 5th century CE),’ the conservator says.

Close to the place where the monuments were found, a damaged grave of a Przeworsk culture warrior was discovered many years ago, during the construction of the Border Guard Post in nearby Horodło, considered the northernmost site of this culture.

'The number of artefacts, their nature, method of deposition and state of preservation exclude the possibility of a cemetery or a single burial in this place. No bones or fragments of pottery that should have been in the grave pit were found during field verification,’ the conservator says.

He adds that everything indicates that someone deliberately collected these elements, packed them in a bag or another organic container (no trace of which has been preserved) and then threw them into the swamp.

The conservator has transferred the monuments to the collection of the Stanisław Staszic Museum in Hrubieszów, which will immediately begin securing and maintaining them. 'Only after these procedures will it be possible to properly determine the nature of the discovery in question and its chronological and cultural affiliation,’ the conservator says.

The place where the weapons were discovered will be re-examined in spring, under more favourable weather conditions.

The Stanisław Staszic Museum in Hrubieszów also commented on the discovery saying: 'For many years, while showing our visitors around, we have mentioned that there must be weapons used by the Goths in the soil somewhere in the Hrubieszów area. Remember that the Goths did not place iron objects in their graves. These spears, swords, axes and other military equipment must be somewhere and it is only a matter of time before we find one of such places.’



https://scienceinpoland.pl/en/news/news%...eszow.html

[JonikW]

From BBC News:

Aylesbury Roman egg with contents a 'world first', say scientists

“The only intact chicken's egg found from Roman Britain is now thought to be the only one of its type in the world - after scientists found it still had liquid inside.

“The egg, which is about 1,700 years old, was found during a dig in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.

“Researchers said at the time it was a "genuinely unique discovery". However, they admitted they were "blown away" recently to find it still contained the yolk and egg white….”

[JMcB]

Galilee hiker stumbles upon 2,800-year-old Assyrian scarab seal

Antiquities Authority says recent winter rains helped expose buried antiquities, urges public to be aware and to turn over finds

By GAVRIEL FISKE
7 February 2024,




A rare scarab amulet from the First Temple period was recently discovered by a hiker in the Nahal Tabor Nature Reserve in the Lower Galilee and turned over to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The scarab, made from reddish-brown carnelian stone, is estimated to be 2,800 years old and of Assyrian or Babylonian origin. The front is carved in the shape of a beetle, and the back has engravings that depict a griffon or a winged horse, a common motif of the Ancient Near East.

When he discovered the artifact, Erez Avrahamov, 45, was on a two-day leave from IDF reserve duty, taking advantage of a sunny day after recent rains.

[…]

Abrahamov found the scarab near the bottom of Tel Rekhesh, associated with the city of Anaharath mentioned in the Book of Joshua.

During the 6th-7th centuries BCE, “a large citadel stood at the top of the mount, where bathing facilities, halls and ritual chambers were found from the period of Assyrian rule. This rule, as we know, was responsible for the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel” in the First Temple period, IAA archaeologist Dr. Yitzhak Paz explained.

The scarab is likely from this period of Assyrian control and “may indicate the presence of Assyrian (or perhaps Babylonian) officials at Tel Rekhesh during this period,” Paz added. If the scarab can be conclusively dated and this connection proven, it will be a discovery of “great significance,” he said.


For the rest of the article, see:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/galilee-hi...arab-seal/

[ronin92]

Scandinavia's first farmers slaughtered the hunter-gatherer population, DNA analysis suggests

Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden, among others. The results, which are contrary to prevailing opinion, are based on DNA analysis of skeletons and teeth found in what is now Denmark. 

...

A thousand years later, about 4,850 years ago, another population change took place when people with genetic roots in Yamnaya—a livestock herding people with origins in southern Russia—came to Scandinavia and wiped out the previous farmer population. ...


https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scandinavia-farmers-slaughtered-hunter-population.html