Free Republic

Archaeologists recently identified the remains of four human funerary burials from approximately 3,800 years ago in a space in northern Peru associated with a water cult. The bundled funeral remains belong to two children, a teenager, and an adult. They were buried facing the Andean mountains and interred with symbolic offerings, such as stone pendants and snail shells. The remains were found nestled between mud and stone walls near a valley in Peru’s dry, coastal Viru province by the Virú Valley Archaeological Research Project (PAVI) of the National University of Trujillo (UNT). Related Articles The ancient neolithic monument of Stonehenge...

About 20 fragments were found, including a skull, rib sections, vertebra, a front leg bone and a kneecap, all believed to come from the same mastodonArchaeologists in Iowa have uncovered parts of a mastodon fossil, including its skull, that they believe dates back to when the first humans lived on Earth. Over the course of a 12-day excavation, staff from the University of Iowa's Office of the State Archaeologist worked with local community members to recover the bones. About 20 fragments were found, including a skull, rib sections, vertebra, a front leg bone and a kneecap, all believed to come...

Archaeologists in Germany have unearthed more than 1,500 medieval silver coins after a citizen unexpectedly noticed what looked like "small metal plates" while digging during a construction project...The finding, which was made in May while workers laid pipe near a swimming pool in the municipality of Glottertal, bears clues to what the mining and minting trades looked like in the area 650 years ago, according to a translated statement from the Stuttgart Regional Council.Back in 1949, archaeologists in Freiburg (also known as Freiburg im Breisgau) found about 5,000 coins from around the 1280s, but no medieval coins had been found...

Roman-era sarcophagus used as bar on Bulgarian beach believed to be authenticThe genuine Roman sarcophagus was being used as decoration at a resort near Varna in the Black Sea. An ancient sarcophagus dating back to the Roman era was discovered on a beach and used as a bar at a Black Sea resort near Varna. Following its discovery, archaeologists from the Regional History Museum in Varna examined the ancient artefact, identifying its rich ornamentation as part of the "garland sarcophagi" from Roman times. The sarcophagus is made from shelly limestone, characteristic of northwestern Bulgaria. It features intricate relief decorations...

An archeological team in Venezuela has discovered 20 rock art sites that date back thousands of years in Canaima National Park, in the southeastern part of the country. While archaeologists have found similar rock art designs elsewhere in South America, the newfound art "represents a new culture previously unknown," José Miguel Pérez-Gómez, an archaeologist and researcher at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas who is leading the team, told Live Science in an email. Some of these designs, which researchers call "pictograms," were drawn in red and depict geometric motifs such as lines of dots, rows of X's, star-shaped patterns and...

The slabs included hieroglyphic inscriptions about the kings' achievements, including King Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent and ancestor of King Tut...The ancient artifacts were discovered in the area in 1960, but were lost the following decade during the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Aswan.Archaeologists had rushed to remove them before they were lost underwater, but many couldn't be relocated in time...The researchers used underwater filming and photographing techniques to document the discovery.They are also creating 3D models of the images using photogrammetry - the process of using surface measurements from pictures to create an accurate...

Rome's Monte Testaccio, the ancient world's largest garbage dump, is estimated to contain 53 million broken amphorae.Rome's Mountain of Ancient Garbage | 13:11toldinstone | 511K subscribers | 157,252 views | June 25, 2024Chapters:0:00 Introduction1:17 Spanish olive groves2:03 From olives to oil3:47 The voyage to Portus5:15 The emperor's oil6:15 Up the Tiber7:09 Romanis Magicae8:02 The warehouse district9:30 Monte Testaccio11:12 Significance of a dump11:46 Visiting Monte Testaccio

Archaeologists have uncovered a "monumental" fortification that protected Jerusalem's biblical kings some 3,000 years ago. The "dramatic" archaeological discovery solved a 150-year-old mystery in the City of David. Since 2007, archaeologists have been excavating the area around the Givati Parking Lot, the largest active archaeological excavation in Jerusalem today. The excavation site on the northwestern side of the City of David has unearthed different layers of the city's life from the Middle Ages to ancient times. The most recent archaeological find is the remnants of a moat that split the City of David in half — separating the king's palace...

A Sumerian “sacred code” has been deciphered, revealing divinely inspired building instructions echoed in the Bible. Experts have been puzzled since unearthing the 4,000-year-old statue of a leader called Gudea, which features an architectural plan, an inscription claiming he built a temple commanded to him in a dream, and a “ruler” of undeciphered measurements.... British Museum archaeologists have now cracked the “sacred code” of these mysterious measurements after finding a lost temple in Iraq...Dr Sebastien Rey, director of the British Museum’s project in Iraq, said: “It is like the precise measurement we see in the Bible in a much later...

Ancient Egyptians, 2000-3000 thousand years ago, not only worshipped crocodiles, offering them bread, meat and wine, but also sacrificed and mummified them, a new study confirms. Published in the journal Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, the research purports to have gained a deeper understanding of a religious practice behind the mummification of crocodiles in ancient Egypt. The specific crocodile mummy examined for the study that led to the conclusions was 2.2 meters-long and is housed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The team of experts conducted various scans on the mummified crocodile, which revealed a fish hook...

A study reveals that 400,000 years ago, early humans developed Quina scrapers for hunting, adapting to the disappearance of elephants and forming a cultural link to the resource-rich Mountains of Samaria... These tools were first discovered at a site in France and are named after it. They have been found at the ancient sites of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. Quina scrapers are distinguished by their scalloped, sharp working edges, which were utilized for butchering fallow deer and processing their hides.The researchers explain that after the elephants disappeared from the region, the ancient hunters were forced to make technological adaptations enabling...

A £560,000 prize was on offer for scholars who could read the ancient Roman texts buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Scrolls cocooned in volcanic ash that consumed the Roman city of Pompeii have been deciphered for the first time in 2,000 years. Using AI researchers were able to discern some meaning from the writings which were discovered in the doomed ancient Italian city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. ...In a statement the Vesuvius Challenge revealed some of the information hidden until now in the scrolls which appear to be philosophical treatises concerning...

One of the big lies in today’s world is that the Jews are white supremacist colonizers, while the people in Gaza and the West Bank are the region’s indigenous inhabitants. In fact, the contrary is true. Jews long predated Muslims in the region, as described in the Bible. Now, there’s more evidence that Isaiah, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles all accurately describe the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem 2,700 years ago.During the reign of Hezekiah of Judah in Jerusalem and Sennacherib in Assyria, the mighty Assyrian kingdom attacked Jerusalem (around 701 BC). We know it happened because of a clay prism...

Amateur archaeologists have unearthed five human skeletons missing their hands and feet under the former home of the Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair military headquarters in present-day Poland. The remains, believed to be that of a family, were discovered as part of a dig at the site near the north-eastern town of Kętrzyn, where Nazi leaders spent large stretches of the second world war. Mystery surrounds the chilling find, first reported by Der Spiegel, including the identity of the victims, the circumstances of their burial, and whether the Reichsmarschall knew the bones were there while he...

From a distance, the slate gray roof and central white tower of the Brahekyrkan church appear charming. The idyllic building is situated on a small island in southern Sweden and surrounded by a cemetery dotted with flowers.So archaeologists weren't surprised when a construction project at the church uncovered several skeletons — but the grave held an 800-year-old mystery, too.Archaeologists began excavations at the Brahekyrkan church in Visingsö to prepare for the installation of a geothermal heating system, the Jönköping County Museum said in a March 27 news release.On the first day of the excavation, the team found two skeletons, Anna...

The Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt, a massive structure carved from a single rock, has long fascinated visitors and experts alike. While many believed that the imposing statue, with its human head and lion's body, was created by humans during the ancient kingdom of Egypt around 2600 BC, its true origins remained shrouded in mystery. However, a recent study conducted by scientists from New York University, published in the journal Physical Review Fluids, provides insight into how this extraordinary statue was formed over 4,500 years ago. The multi-layered body: A puzzle Traditionally attributed to human craftsmanship, the exact process...

A pair of archaeologists, one with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the other with the University of Warsaw, both in Poland, has found evidence suggesting that rock carvings found in a southern part of Peru may have been inspired by people singing while consuming hallucinogenic plants. In their study, published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Andrzej Rozwadowski and Janusz Wołoszyn analyzed rock carvings found in Toro Muerto. Toro Muerto, ("dead bull" in Spanish) is a rock art complex in South America situated in a desert gorge near the Majes River Valley, spanning 10 km2. It hosts approximately 2,600 volcanic boulders,...

A plan to restore one of the Giza pyramids is being slammed by archaeologists, who have compared it to “straightening the Tower of Pisa.” The project—which is already in motion—aims to reconstruct the outer casing of granite on the Pyramid of Menkaure’s four sides, and is a partnership between the Egyptian government and Japanese archaeologists. The facade is being constructed with the original blocks scattered around the pyramid’s base. According to the project team, the blocks were dislodged during an earthquake within the last thousand years. Related Articles Google Arts and Culture's Art Selfie 2. Google Brings Back App that...

With the deployment of airborne laser sensors as well as more traditional excavation techniques, archeologists have discovered evidence of a massive and sophisticated lost city in the dense Amazon rain forest region of eastern Ecuador in the Andes foothills. Lead researcher Stephen Rostain of the National Center for Scientific Research in France told the BBC, “This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilization, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilization.” According to the survey of about 200 miles in the Amazon,...

A letter written by a Roman emperor helped lead a team of archaeologists to an ancient temple that "adds significant insights into the social changes" from pagan beliefs to Christianity in the Roman Empire, experts announced recently. The lead archaeologist on the expedition, Douglas Boin, Ph.D., announced the "monumental discovery" at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, according to a news release from St. Louis University, where Boin is a professor of history. Boin said he and his team discovered "three walls of a monumental structure" that appears to have been a Roman temple from the Constantine...