Free Republic

Science News Today reports that archaeologists excavating a Copper Age cemetery in western Iran recently noticed the unusual skull of a young woman among the burials. Her elongated and cone-shaped cranium clearly indicated that when she was younger, she had undergone some type of skull modification, a process that usually involves the binding of a child's head with cloth during their formative years. The report notes that for many cultures across the globe, from the Central American Maya to the Huns of Eurasia, cranial shaping was a symbol of beauty, status, or identity. In this case, the researchers believe, it...

The nearly complete skeleton, with severed feet and a pugio on the back, leaves the cause of death and burial a "real mystery." Archaeologists excavating a 4,900-year-old fortress in Almendralejo, southwestern Spain, have uncovered the burial of a man who may have been a Roman soldier. The solitary, shallow grave was discovered near one of the defensive ditches of the ancient fortress and contained the remains of a man between 25 and 35 years old, laid face down with a pugio—a Roman dagger—on his back. The dagger was found completely intact and still in its sheath. It has been dated...

Excavations at an ancient Iraqi site called Shakhi Kora have revealed new clues about the origins of the world's earliest governing institutions, according to research led by the University of Glasgow.The research published in the journal Antiquity today (Wednesday 4 December 2024) suggests these early governing institutions emerged partly from their ability to provide large-scale meals, potentially as payment for labour. However, the later abandonment of these centralised structures, without signs of violent overthrow or environmental stress, points to a deliberate rejection of centralised forms of organisation that likely involved increasing top-down control...Shakhi Kora is a Late Chalcolithic site in...

A 4,000-year-old copper dagger has been unearthed in northeastern Italy's Tina Jama Cave, according to a SciNews report. Federico Bernardini of Ca' Foscari University said that the dagger is similar to copper daggers uncovered in Slovenia. "The findings are essential for understanding the technological, cultural, and social transformations in Europe during that period," added Elena Leghissa of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences. "The discovery of the copper dagger is an exceptional event that raises questions about the cave's use," she added. A structure made of stone slabs and blocks between about 2000 and 1500 B.C. was also excavated near the...

A copper dagger more than 4,000 years old was found in a forest near the town of Jarosław on the San River in south-eastern Poland. This discovery is the oldest dagger made of metal found in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship.In the 3rd millennium BC, objects made of copper were extremely rare in the area, Dr Elżbieta Sieradzka-Burghardt, an archaeologist from the Jarosław museum, told PAP.This valuable object, dating back over 4,000 years, was discovered last November by Piotr Gorlach of the Jarosław Historical and Exploration Association, who – with the permission of the Podkarpacie Regional Historical Monument Conservator in Przemyśl –...

Serbian archaeologists say a 7,500-year-old copper axe found at a Balkan site shows the metal was used in the Balkans hundreds of years earlier than previously thought. The find near the Serbian town of Prokuplje shifts the timeline of the Copper Age and the Stone Age's neolithic period, archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic told the independent Beta news agency. 'Until now, experts said that only stone was used in the Stone Age and that the Copper Age came a bit later. Our finds, however, confirm that metal was used some 500 to 800 years earlier,' she said. The Copper Age marks the...

One of the oldest copper fishhooks in the world was discovered during excavations in Ashkelon, southern Israel, the Israel Antiquity Authority (IAA) announced on Wednesday.The 6,000-year-old discovery was made in 2018 when the IAA carried out excavations prior to the construction of the Agamim neighborhood in Ashkelon. However, the find is only being presented to the public now; it will be exhibited for the first time at the 48th Archeological Congress on April 3, the IAA press release said."This unique find is 6.5 cm (2.5 inches) long and 4 cm (1.5 inches) wide, its large dimensions making it suitable for...

The Metsamor archaeological site is located near the village of Taronik, in the Armavir Province of Armenia, where the oldest trace of human settlement dates from the 4th millennium BC during the Copper Age.In the Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages, the site became an important religious and economic centre, developing into a city with many temples and sanctuaries, fortified by a citadel and cyclopean walls, and an advanced economy based on metallurgical production.Recent excavations have uncovered a sunken chamber framed by large stones, containing the remains of a wooden burial and two skeletons who died at the age of...

Cache of ancient gold rings discovered in Romania. (Ţării Crişurilor Museum, Oradea, Romania) Archaeologists in Romania have discovered an extraordinary cache of ancient gold rings that a 6,500-year-old woman wore in her hair. The trove in a Copper Age grave includes 169 gold rings, 800 bone beads, and an ornate spiraled copper bracelet discovered by a team from the Ţării Crişurilor museum in Oradea, Romania. The jewelry was laid to rest alongside a burial of an "extremely rich" woman, museum director Gabriel Moisa said, Romanian outlet Agerpres reports. Archaeologists identified the remains as belonging to a woman based on the...

A mind-blowing 3D reconstruction has revealed what a Stone Age woman looked like 4,000 years ago. It’s now on display at Västernorrlands Museum in Sweden and is based on skeletal remains that were found in 1923. The remains of the Stone Age woman were found next to the body of a seven-year-old boy who may have been her son. Scientists have reconstructed her after all this time and designed her expression as if she was watching over her child....

Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade. For 1,500 years, starting earlier than 5000 B.C., they farmed and built sizable towns, a few with as many as 2,000 dwellings. They mastered large-scale copper smelting, the new technology of the age. Their graves held an impressive array of exquisite headdresses and necklaces and, in one cemetery, the earliest major assemblage of gold artifacts to...

The remains of a group of people who died 6200 years ago in a massacre in Croatia have been genetically analysed to reveal their ages, sex and ancestry.Mario Novak at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia, and his colleagues retrieved DNA from 38 of 41 individuals found in a mass grave in Potočani, Croatia. The other three remains didn’t contain enough genetic material to sequence...“There are at least 41 individuals of both sexes and almost all age groups – the youngest is about 2 years old and the oldest is about 50,” says Novak. Radiocarbon dating of each...

Monte Kronio rises 1,300 feet above the geothermally active landscape of southwestern Sicily. Hidden in its bowels is a labyrinthine system of caves, filled with hot sulfuric vapors. At lower levels, these caves average 99 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 percent humidity. Human sweat cannot evaporate and heat stroke can result in less than 20 minutes of exposure to these underground conditions. Nonetheless, people have been visiting the caves of Monte Kronio since as far back as 8,000 years ago. They’ve left behind vessels from the Copper Age (early sixth to early third millennium B.C.) as well as various sizes of...

More than 4,000 years ago builders carved out the entire surface of a naturally pyramid-shaped promontory on the Greek island of Keros. They shaped it into terraces covered with 1,000 tonnes of specially imported gleaming white stone to give it the appearance of a giant stepped pyramid rising from the Aegean: the most imposing manmade structure in all the Cyclades archipelago... Archaeologists from three different countries involved in an ongoing excavation have found evidence of a complex of drainage tunnels -- constructed 1,000 years before the famous indoor plumbing of the Minoan palace of Knossos on Crete -- and traces...

When viewed through the window of the museum’s freezer, where he is kept now, his hands not only appear unusually small, but they also show little sign of hard use, suggesting that Ötzi was no manual laborer. Every modern murder investigation relies heavily on forensic science, but in Ötzi’s case, the techniques have been particularly high tech, involving exotic specialties like archaeobotany and paleometallurgy. From examining traces of pollen in his digestive tract, scientists were able to place the date of Ötzi’s death at sometime in late spring or early summer. In his last two days, they found, he consumed...