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The Times of Central Asia reports that archaeologists from the National Museum of Tajikistan made a number of significant discoveries at the site of Khalkajar near the village of Sarband. Among them was a unique two-handled ceramic jug dating from the time of the Kushan Empire, which was one of the most influential and powerful states of ancient Central Asia that encompassed parts of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Dating to between the first and third century a.d, the vessel contains a faint painted inscription written in the Bactrian language. Linguistic experts determined that it reads, "This water...

Anadolu Agency reports that excavations at the site of Olympos in the current-day region of Antalya revealed new evidence that attests to the site's early Christian history. Inside a building known as Church No. 1, the team uncovered mosaic floors featuring geometric patterns, floral motifs, and Greek inscriptions, some of which bear the names of individuals who are believed to be among the church's early benefactors. "These finds confirm Olympos as one of the richest ancient cities in the Lycia region in terms of mosaic flooring," said excavation director Gökçen Kurtuluş Öztaşkın. Another inscription near the structure's entrance reads, "Only...

The Venus of Willendorf, a small ochre-coloured figurine from the Paleolithic period, takes her name from the village in northern Austria where she was excavated on August 7, 1908 by three Austrian paleontologists... On the 100th anniversary of her excavation, this Venus is being honoured with a special exhibition at the museum, alongside other artefacts from the same period. Carved from oolitic limestone, she is a round woman, standing with her arms resting on her breasts and belly, her bowed head hiding her face but showing off elaborate hair... The first and only statuette of her kind before the...

A statue of the Roman goddess Venus was found on the construction site of a future hotel in the center of Zadar, about a meter high, preserved from the knees to below the chest, made of marble, and about 1800 years old, reports Slobodna Dalmacija. "Academician Nenad Cambi, our greatest expert on antiquity, believes that it is most likely a statue of the goddess Venus. Its full height was about two meters, and it was probably on a pedestal in the atrium of this ancient urban villa where we are now," said Smiljan Gluščević. A statue of the Roman goddess...

The House of Vettii, one of the largest in Pompeii, was named for its two owners, Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. It contains a great many frescoes which have been rediscovered after Pompeii was destroyed in the volcanic explosion of 79 AD. I've also uploaded my Blooper reel made for IBM Research's 25th anniversary of Computer Science. Quick and dirty, done in the middle of the night, it's a humorous class in how to make a video. While my boss' video played on one TV, this one had an audience stacked 8 deep in front of another TV....

Nude statue is latest artwork to be deemed inappropriate by social media giantCases of art censorship on Facebook continue to surface. The latest work deemed “pornographic” is the 30,000 year-old nude statue famously known as the Venus of Willendorf, part of the Naturhistorisches Museum (NHM) collection in Vienna. An image of the work posted on Facebook by Laura Ghianda, a self-described “artivist”, was removed as inappropriate content despite four attempts to appeal the decision. The early Stone Age statue, which depicts a voluptuous woman with prominent labia, was discovered in Austria in 1908 and is famed for its detailed carving...

Researchers have determined that a nearly five-inch-tall limestone figurine of a woman found by a farmer near the city of Kołobrzeg in 2022 dates to more than 6,000 years ago, according to a report in The Art Newspaper. The statuette was dubbed the "Venus of Kołobrzeg," a reference to similar Neolithic figurines with accentuated breasts unearthed throughout Europe that scholars believe were fertility symbols. The oldest known example, which was found in 2008 at southern Germany's Hohle Fels Cave, is some 40,000 years old. The Kołobrzeg Venus is the only such figurine discovered north of the Carpathian Mountains. Researchers noted...

The Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot-long linen cloth crafted in the eleventh century, depicts scenes from William the Conqueror's invasion of England and his defeat of Harold Godwinson, England's last Anglo-Saxon king, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. (See "Unfolding the Bayeux Tapestry," January/February 2021.) There are detailed images of boats, horses, battles, fish, and even of Harold himself. Only four actual places in England are shown on the tapestry -- one being Harold's residence -- but their locations have been hard to identify. "Despite the tapestry's relative notoriety," says Newcastle University archaeologist Duncan Wright, "it's unusual that little concerted...

In Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus hails from the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea. Greek City Times reports that archaeological work conducted by a team from the University of Ioannina has uncovered further evidence of the Trojan War warrior's association with the island. The recent excavations occurred near the village of Exogi at the site of Agios Athanasios, often referred to as the "School of Homer." Archaeologists uncovered significant evidence of a major Mycenaean Age settlement there dating to the fourteenth or thirteenth century b.c., the supposed era in which the...

The government of Tamil Nadu has announced a $1 million reward for anyone who can successfully decipher the cryptic script of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). Chief Minister M.K. Stalin made the announcement following a new study that suggests significant connections between symbols in the Indus script and markings found on ancient Tamil pottery. The Enigma of the Indus Valley Script The Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished around 5,000 years ago in the fertile plains of the Indus River (present-day northwest India and Pakistan), is known for its advanced urban planning and extensive trade networks. However, one of its...

During the 19th Dynasty (ca. 1295–1186 b.c.), the village of Deir el-Medina, on the Nile's west bank in Upper, or southern, Egypt, was home to a community of civil servants and artisans who built and decorated the royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Scholars are on unusually familiar terms with these people. "As expert scribes and draftsmen, they left quite a lot of writing," says Egyptologist Rob Demarée of Leiden University. At the site, archaeologists have excavated tens of thousands of texts written on papyrus and ostracons -- discarded pieces of pottery or stone used like scrap...

Archaeologist Youssof Majidzadeh proposed in 2003 that the civilization discovered in Jiroft could be the legendary Aratta, mentioned in Sumerian poetry for its wealth. However, this theory lacked solid historical evidence and faced criticism from the academic community. Other experts suggested that, due to references in Mesopotamian texts about conflicts with a powerful Iranian state, this kingdom might be the Marhashi Kingdom.The analysis of the iconography from Jiroft revealed striking similarities with Mesopotamian traditions, hinting at a possible cultural connection. Depictions of mythological creatures like bulls and eagles evoked Sumerian myths, such as the shepherd king Etana. Speculations also arose...

Walk in the footsteps of the Scythian Princes who lived in the 1st millennium AD. This mysterious people of intrepid horsemen has left a real archaeological desire. From the 1st millennium BC, the Scythians constituted a moving and formidable empire established in the vast Eurasian steppes. The only traces they left us are their graves: the kurgans. In April 1999, a Franco-Italian and Kazakh scientific team announced the exceptional discovery in Kazakhstan of a 2,400-year-old Scythian tomb. A true archaeological treasure, the contents of the tomb reveal, among other things, twelve horses entirely harnessed in gold, whose precious adornment testifies...

The carving on this gemstone depicts the mythological carpenter Taitle, whose name is inscribed at the bottom. Taitle is the Etruscan equivalent of Daedalus, the Greek inventor who fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus, whose Etruscan counterpart is named Vikare. Together, father and son used the wings to escape the island of Crete, where the pair were imprisoned lest they expose the secrets of the labyrinth that Daedalus had designed."Taitle is an important figure for craftspeople, especially for the Etruscans," says archaeologist Holly Piper of the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. Artisans frequently depicted Taitle wearing or constructing...

German researchers have reconstructed the ancient manufacturing process of the Nebra Sky Disc, one of Europe's best-known archaeological finds, and discovered the impressive metallurgical skills of Early Bronze Age craftsmen.Discovered in 1999 on Mittelberg Hill near Nebra, Germany, the Nebra Sky Disc is a 30-centimeter-diameter bronze artifact. The disc holds gold inlays that represent celestial elements: the full moon or sun, crescent moon, and stars. The disc dates to between 1800 and 1600 BCE and is associated with the Únětice culture. It is, in general, regarded as the oldest representation of the cosmos in the world.Researchers at Otto von Guericke...

BBC News reports that a metal detectorist recently retrieved a rare and unique gold coin from a field in Norwich. The artifact was analyzed by numismatist Adrian Marsden of the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, who believes it dates to between a.d. 640 and 660 and may be the oldest Anglo-Saxon coin ever found in East Anglia. It was minted at a transitional time in English history when Christianity was beginning eclipse pagan beliefs, which is reflected in the coin's iconography. One side of the thrymsa, a type of early Anglo-Saxon shilling, features a dancing man who seems to be holding...

The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact from the 6th century BCE, associated with Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire. It is considered one of the most significant inscriptions from the ancient Near East and is often regarded as a declaration of enlightened rule. The language is Akkadian. The script is Cuneiform. Akkadian was the diplomatic and administrative language of the region, even though Cyrus himself was Persian. The use of Akkadian ensured the text would be understood across Babylon and other parts of Mesopotamia. The Cyrus Cylinder was created after Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon in 539...

Archaeologists have cracked the code of 255 mysterious symbols carved into a rock in Canada more than 200 years ago. The writing was discovered in 2018 after a fallen tree revealed the square-shaped inscription near the town of Wawa, located about 155 miles from the nearest US border crossing in Michigan. Ryan Primrose, an archaeologist from the Ontario Center for Archaeological Education, has now revealed that the symbols form the Lord’s Prayer — a well-known Christian prayer — written in Swedish. He identified the characters as Nordic runes, part of an old alphabet once used in Sweden and other parts...

In June 2009, a broken limestone mug was discovered by archaeologists in the rubble of a Jewish home on Mount Zion. The house had been destroyed in 70 C.E. when the Romans leveled Jerusalem and the Temple to stomp home the message of their victory over the unmanageable Jews.Ostensibly typical of tableware in Jewish homes of the Second Temple period, this mug was unlike any other ever found, Professor Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte reports in the recent issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, just out.Limestone dishes began to emerge in about the year 40 B.C.E.,...

When archaeologists were sifting through layers of sediment from the San Lázaro rock shelter in Segovia, Spain, they noticed an unusual looking stone that seemed to contain a small red dot in the middle. BBC News reports that deeper analysis of the object revealed that the strange mark was actually a Neanderthal fingerprint, the oldest known human fingerprint in existence. The researchers suggest that the small rock's three natural indentations resemble the two eyes and mouth of a human face. The dot seems to have been added to the stone's surface with red ocher to create the missing nose. Multispectral...