Free Republic

Japanese researchers discovered a large dakō iron sword and a giant bronze mirror in a 4th-century burial mound in the city of Nara. The two items were found last November in the Tomio Maruyama Tumulus. According to the local government groups, the 125-pound, shield-shaped decorated mirror was the first of its kind to be discovered, and the seven-foot iron serpentine dakō sword is the largest and oldest from the Kofun period (300 CE–710 CE) to be found. Experts say this allows the two items from the Tomio Maruyama Tumulus to be classified as national treasures. The shield-shaped mirror is two...

We know a lot about how mummies were embalmed, but the specific substances and mixtures and how exactly they were used have long eluded us — until now. Scientists have uncovered an ancient embalming facility in Egypt, an unprecedented discovery offering deep insight into the complicated process of how mummies were made and into Egyptian hieroglyphs. Located around 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Cairo, the facility dates to around 664-525 BC and consists of an aboveground structure and several underground rooms up to 30 meters (98.4 feet) below ground. The substances found inside were sourced from as far away...

An illustration depicting the ancient Egyptian process of embalming. (Nikola Nevenov) ********************************************************* An analysis of the residue on ceramics found in an ancient embalming workshop has given us new insights into how ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. Even more astonishingly, a team of scientists has been able to link different substances to the specific parts of the body on which they were used. This discovery is, in part, thanks to the residues themselves, which were studied using biomolecular techniques; but many of the vessels were intact, including not just the names of their contents, but instructions for their use. "We...

The most numerous species of bird on earth has influenced culture, religion, and even language. The History Guy remembers the forgotten historical contributions of the chicken. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.Why did the Chicken Cross the Road? Chickens and Forgotten HistoryThe History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered1.14M subscribers | 596,985 views | April 25, 2019

...not everyone agrees that this is a new finding, with some experts noting that other research has already found that silver currency was being used during the Middle Bronze Age in this region...Eshel and her colleagues also attempted to determine the origins of the silver in the hoards by studying their chemical impurities and isotopes — variations in the number of neutrons in the nuclei of particular elements, which change over time at known rates due to radiation.The analysis revealed signs of a widespread transition between sources in about 1200 B.C., possibly from silver mined in Anatolia — now Turkey...

Archaeologists are now seeing how a landscape of fjords, straits and islands attracted people in the Stone Age. Few other places in Europe lend themselves as well to studying the lives and disappearances of the Stone Age people.If you take the E6 motorway at Vinterbro, outside of Norway's capital Oslo, and head out towards the Nesoddtangen promontory, you will shortly afterwards pass the now quite unremarkable Havsjodalen.Here, Stone Age settlements appear close together...An improvement of the road to Nesodden municipality a few years ago opened up the possibility for the archaeologists to start digging in earnest...In Stone Age Norway, people...

By the first century BCE, Rome had gained control of the entire Mediterranean, but those conquests had been accompanied by a century of civil war that witnessed the assassination of politicians on all sides of the political spectrum. At one point, the adherents of one populist politician marched on Rome's temple of Castor and Pollux, which was closely associated with the Senate, and tore up the temple steps. This period of nearly continuous warfare would not end until 31 BCE, when Julius Caesar’s nephew Octavian vanquished the combined forces of Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra at the battle...

Summary: A new study based on 297 ancient Scandinavian genomes analysed together with the genomic data of 16,638 present day Scandinavians resolve the complex relations between geography, ancestry, and gene flow in Scandinavia — encompassing the Roman Age, the Viking Age and later periods. A surprising increase of variation during the Viking period indicates that gene flow into Scandinavia was especially intense during this period.A new study based on 297 ancient Scandinavian genomes analysed together with the genomic data of 16,638 present day Scandinavians resolve the complex relations between geography, ancestry, and gene flow in Scandinavia — encompassing the Roman...

In 1066, Duke William of Normandy left France on a fleet of ships to fight his cousin and competitor for the vacant English throne, Harold Godwinson, and at the Battle of Hastings, the matter was settled. Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon claimant, was dead, and a new age for England began.(1) Had the EU existed then, he'd have never had the chance. Given current EU red tape, efforts to make a replica of La Mora, the ship Williams used to become The Conqueror, mean it may still not be ready for the 1,000 year anniversary. Unless Great Britain, having shucked off...

Three ancient Romanian maps bolster accuracy of “Persian Gulf” name VIENNA (IRNA) -- Three ancient maps kept in a Romanian academy confirm the accuracy of the name Persian Gulf to denote waters off the southern coast of Iran, said an Iranian embassy official in Bucharest Friday. Speaking to IRNA, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that researches made by the Romanian academy uncovered a map called "Asiac Nova Descripto" dating back to 1584 in which the Persian Gulf is historically referred to as "Mar Mesendin Ol Sinus Persicus." The Romanian academy is one of the most important...

A team of researchers at the University of Patras's, OCEANUS- Lab has found evidence suggesting that early human ancestors (extinct hominids) may have sailed across the Aegean Sea.In their paper... the group describes analyzing sea level drops in the Aegean Sea during the time of early human ancestors and the possibility of such ancestors walking over land bridges to get to what are now islands in the area...In this new effort, the researchers challenged this theory by conducting a study of global glaciations and sea level drops in the Aegean Sea. Their work involved studying sea level markers in river...

Historical Bangor - Episode Three:The Roman World Map of Marcus AgrippaDr Raoul McLaughlin | 9.56K subscribers | 875 views | Premiered Jun 9, 2022

For most of human history, the disasters wrought by nature were utterly unpredictable, their causes wholly unknown. They were merely a random act of God that could lay waste to whole cities without warning. On the morning of May 20, 1202, thousands of people across an enormous swath of the Earth experienced such destruction.The Forgotten 1202 earthquakeThe History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered1.13M subscribers | 79,737 views | December 12, 2022

Dilmun calendar theory backed By GEOFFREY BEW A SAUDI archaeologist who has been trying for nine years to prove his theory that the Dilmun civilisation celebrated New Year on June 21 - the first day of summer - has finally received some official recognition.Information Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Culture and National Heritage Shaikha Mai bint Khalifa Al Khalifa is said to have endorsed his judgement after visiting the 4,000-year-old Saar settlement to observe the phenomenon last month. Archaeologist Nabiel Al Shaikh says an ancient temple at the settlement, which features an oddly positioned triangular room, was used as an astronomical...

A Saudi archaeologist... claims the Dilmun civilisation marked the first day of the year by the summer solstice, which falls today and every year on June 21. The theory is based on a discovery made by Dammam Regional Museum archaeologist Nabiel Al Shaikh in 1996, while he was conducting an excavation with a British team of archaeologists. At the site, he found an ancient temple with an oddly positioned triangular corner room, which he claims was used as an astronomical device to measure the position of the sun. He believes that during the summer solstice the sun would set over...

Meluhha: the Indus Civilization and Its Contacts with MesopotamiaMark Kenoyer, University of Wisconsin, MadisonThe Oriental Institute | 211,313 views | October 7, 2010

The Yangtze No. 2 Ancient Shipwreck, the largest wooden shipwreck discovered underwater in China to date, was recently lifted out of the waters off Hengsha Island in Shanghai's Chongming district.The 150-year-old "time capsule" carries rich historical information. It marks another milestone achievement in China's underwater archaeology and provides valuable evidentiary materials for the studies of China's maritime civilization and for the mutual exchanges among civilizations in ancient times.The Yangtze No. 2 Ancient Shipwreck is one of the largest and best-preserved wooden shipwrecks discovered underwater in China and even the world at large and carrying the richest cultural relics.Based on its...

Archaeologists in England announced Tuesday they uncovered a medieval burial site so historically significant they’ve termed it “an archaeologist’s dream.” The Museum of London Archaeology team stumbled upon the remains of a woman buried between 630 and 670 AD near the village of Harpole in Northamptonshire, according to The Guardian. Buried alongside her was an intricate necklace made of gold, garnets and various other semi-precious stones. The necklace is reportedly the richest of its kind ever unveiled in Great Britain, and features an unprecedented level of craftsmanship for its period. The grave also contained a large, intricately adorned cross, as...

In an essay for the New York Times 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones argues that the United States was “founded as a Slavocracy” and that racist ideology was the country’s “original sin.” The 1619 Project’s educational curriculum develops this premise further by drawing a direct link between slavery and the policies, laws and culture of present day America. The death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests strengthened this narrative and led to a flurry of actions. Statues were removed and enquiry commissions set up to expose institutions’ historic links to slavery. Some activists have even argued that...

Researchers from several institutions, led by Ernst Pernicka, scientific director of the Curt-Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry (CEZA) at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim and director of the University of Tübingen’s Troy project, applied a portable laser ablation system (pLA) to analyse samples of Bronze Age jewellery found in Troy and Poliochni...Poliochne, often cited under its modern name Poliochni, was an ancient settlement on the east coast of the island of Lemnos. It was settled in the Late Chalcolithic and earliest Aegean Bronze Age, and is believed to be one of the most ancient towns in Europe, preceding the construction of...