Free Republic

Most estimates have relied heavily on information gleaned from Icelandic sagas, but since these were only written down centuries after the fact and talk about things like glittery one-footed assassins, researchers have wisely taken them with a grain of salt.But the new study, published today in the journal Nature, has pinpointed the Viking presence in North America to an exact year: 1021

Last week, the discovery of the oldest known piece of artificially colored jewelry in Japan was unveiled. Although the Mainchi reported that the 23,000-year-old bead was actually unearthed five years ago, the finding was made only made public this month in anticipation of its debut at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum in Naha, Japan. The bead, which is considered a prime example of early creative development, is expected to provide valuable information about Paleolithic culture. The bead was carved from a tusk shell and painted with a red pigment, only of which traces remain in the groove of...

A fire at Okinawa's Shuri Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular tourist attraction on the southern Japanese island, has destroyed a large portion of the historic compound. Television video showed firefighters on Thursday trying to contain the blaze at the wooden castle. The compound's main, north and south buildings were destroyed in the fire. "The cause of the fire has not been determined yet, but a security company alarm went off at around 2:30 in the morning," said Ryo Kochi, a spokesman with the Okinawa Prefectural Police. There were no reports of injuries, but about 30 residents...

The eyes of a visiting archaeologist lit up when he was shown the 10 tiny, tarnished discs that had sat unnoticed in storage for two and a half years at a dig on a southern Japan island. He had been to archaeological sites in Italy and Egypt, and recognized the “little round things” as old coins, including a few likely dating to the Roman Empire. “I was so excited I almost forgot what I was there for, and the coins were all we talked about,” said Toshio Tsukamoto of the Gangoji Institute for Research of Cultural Property in Nara, an...

The coins were excavated from the ruins of Katsuren Castle in Okinawa Prefecture, according to the Japan Times, noting that this is the country’s first discovery of its kind. Citing the Board of Education in the city of Uruma, the Japan Times reports that the four copper coins are believed to be from the third to fourth centuries. ... X-ray analysis of the coins has apparently revealed the image of Emperor Constantine I and a soldier carrying a spear. Each coin measures 0.6 inches to 0.8 inches in diameter, according to the report.

Japanese archaeologists said Wednesday they have for the first time unearthed ancient Roman coins at the ruins of an old castle. The discovery of 10 bronze and copper coins -- the oldest dating from about 300-400 AD -- in southern Okinawa caught researchers by surprise. It was the first time Roman Empire coins have been discovered in Japan, thousands of kilometres from where they were likely minted. "At first I thought they were one cent coins dropped by US soldiers," archaeologist Hiroki Miyagi told AFP. "But after washing them in water I realised they were much older. I was really...

Researchers have unearthed an ancient forearm bone from the Mabuni Hantabaru archeological site in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, believed to be from a Jomon period male roughly 169 centimeters tall -- much taller than the average for the period. The bone, measuring about 28 centimeters, is believed to be from the late Jomon period, dating back 3,000-4,000 years. The average height of males from the same period is about 158 centimeters. Takayuki Matsushita, honorary head of the Doigahama Site Anthropological Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which conducted a survey of the area, said the find was unusual. "Even on a national scale,...

On exami[ni]ng hair samples of mummies in the scanning electron microscope we found a piece of tissue between the curls which had the characteristic appearance of silk. To show that the specimen was silk, we performed infrared studies using multiple internal reflection, allowing nondestructive identification of the material. The spectra clearly identified silk.We performed amino-acid anaylsis of the sample according to the method in ref. 2 and obtained the typical spectrum of hydrolysed silk, with high glycine, serine and alanine peaks as originally described by Shimura. To exclude the possibility that the silk specimen could have been added later to...

"The ruler of Da Qin is not permanent. When disasters result from unusual phenomena, they unceremoniously replace him, installing a virtuous man as king, and release the old king, who does not dare show resentment..."Here we have the words of the early third century Chinese historian Yu Huan, who lived during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Though he never left China, he collected large amounts of information on the countries to the West, chief among them the Roman Empire.Enormous thanks to John E. Hill for kindly allowing us to use his translation, and for tips on the possible...

Research on a Phoenician-era shipwreck off Xlendi in Gozo can help us better understand our past, Professor Timmy Gambin told The Malta Independent...“This is one of seven Phoenician shipwrecks in the world so any proper study that comes out of these seven shipwrecks is absolutely important.”Following the four-year excavation project of the Phoenician shipwreck that is located off the coast of Xlendi, the team of international experts, led by the University of Malta, has recently begun a new four-year Post-Excavation Project (2022-2025)...Gambin gave a brief overview of a few different methods within the post-excavation project.Firstly, he spoke about the method...

Boat builders of the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum will soon start a new experimental archeological project – the construction of a full-scale replica of the Viking ship Skuldelev 5.The original Skuldelev 5 ship can be seen in the museum’s Viking Ship Hall. The process of constructing the replica will last between four and five years, The Viking Herald reports...The ship was built in Denmark around ca. 1030 AD. It is 17.3 meters long and 2.5 meters wide – a long and narrow ship equipped with 26 oars and a mainsail, built for fast and efficient transport of warriors in times...

Maritime archaeologists from Bournemouth University have uncovered the remains of a medieval ship and its cargo dating back to the 13th century off the coast of Dorset. The survival of the vessel is extremely rare and there are no known wrecks of seagoing ships from the 11th to the 14th centuries in English waters. The discovery makes this the earliest English designated wreck site where hull remains can be seen.The ship was discovered in Poole Bay on the edge of the Swash Channel by local charter boat skipper Trevor Small of Rocket Charters who reported the discovery to archaeologists from...

A chance discovery is shedding new light on early Norse history, after two old school-friends, armed only with a metal detector stumbled across a gold treasure trove.More than 20 gold artefacts, weighing almost a kilo, were found buried in a field in the Danish village of Vindelev. Hidden for almost 1,500 years, the treasure includes Roman medallions and ornate pendants called 'bracteates' - some as large as a saucer.There are mysterious inscriptions and never-seen-before runes, which researchers think are some of the earliest references to Norse gods.So could Vindelev have been the seat of power for a previously unknown Iron...

Chersonesos is an ancient city on the Crimean peninsula, which was founded by Greek colonists at the end of the 6th century BC in order to supply their homeland with grain and other strategic resources. The farmland in the Greek colonies was vital to the survival of the Greek city-states. Excavations by Aarhus archaeologists are exploring the development of the rural area from its peak until its decline. One of the conclusions so far is that during a period of crisis in the early 3rd century BC a large proportion of the rural population was killed following a military invasion....

Locally sourced grapes and imported tar pitches may have been the norms for winemakers along the coast of Italy during the Roman period, according to jars recovered from the ocean near the harbor of San Felice Circeo. Three different wine jars, or amphorae, were recovered and analyzed, giving researchers a useful insight into the practices for producing wine in this particular region in 1–2 century BCE, part of the late Greco-Italic period. What makes the research particularly notable is that it combines some of the latest chemical analysis techniques with other approaches used in archaeobotany to discover more about these...

A Viking sword discovered by metal detectorists in Norway is revealing new insights into voyages in the North Sea.The sword was found in three pieces in the Jåttå/Gausel area in Stavanger, an area renowned for the grave of the “Gausel Queen” first discovered in 1883...Under Norwegian law, the sword was reported to authorities and was sent to the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger for further study and conservation work.Although the blade is missing, the hilt has unique details in gold and silver and includes gilded elements of the typical animal styles found during the Iron and Viking...

The oldest known shipwreck in the Indian Ocean has been sitting on the seafloor off the southern coast of Sri Lanka for some 2,000 years...The wreck lies 110 feet (33 meters) below the ocean's surface, just off the fishing village of Godavaya, where German archaeologists in the 1990s found a harbor that was an important port along the maritime Silk Road during the second century A.D..."Everything's pretty broken," said Deborah Carlson, president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, who is leading the expedition to the Godavaya wreck with colleagues from the United States, Sri Lanka and...

Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a massive marble head at the Antikythera Shipwreck in Greece, the site where the Antikythera mechanism was previously discovered in 1901. The Antikythera wreck is a Roman-era shipwreck dating from the 1st century BC. The site was discovered by sponge divers near the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.Some scholars speculated that the ship was carrying part of the loot of the Roman General Sulla from Athens in 86 BC. A reference by the Greek writer, Lucian, to one of Sulla’s ships sinking in the Antikythera region gave which rise to this theory.Previous excavations...

Curator Irving Finkel recounts a magical adventure with The Lewis Chessmen. Content warning: wizard's chess.Irving Finkel and the Chamber of Lewis Chessmen | Curator's Corner | S 2 Ep9September 24, 2017 | The British Museum<

The Wallacean islands have always been separated from Asia and Oceania by deep-sea waters. Yet, these tropical islands were a corridor for modern humans migrating into the Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea landmass (Sahul) and have been home to modern human groups for at least 47,000 years. The archaeological record attests a major cultural transition across Wallacea that started around 3,500 years ago and is associated with the expansion of Austronesian-speaking farmers, who intermixed with local hunter-gatherer groups. However, previous genetic studies of modern-day inhabitants have yielded conflicting dates for this intermixing, ranging from 1,100 to nearly 5,000 years ago.