'Frankenstein' Mummies Are a Mix of Corpses

The mixing of remains may have been done to combine different ancestries into a single lineage.

THE GIST
  • The bodies were first unearthed in 2001 during an excavation beneath the foundation of a 3,000-year-old house.
  • The researchers had found what were apparently the remains of a teenage girl and a 3-year-old child at the site.
  • The finding marks the first evidence of deliberate mummification in the ancient Old World outside of Egypt.
mummy

The adult female skeleton from Cladh Hallan. This mummy's lower jaw, arm bone and thighbone all came from different people.
Michael Parker-Pearson

Mummies found off the coast of Scotland are Frankenstein-like composites of several corpses, researchers say.
This mixing of remains was perhaps designed to combine different ancestries into a single lineage, archaeologists speculated.
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The bodies were first unearthed in 2001 during excavations beneath the foundations of an approximately 3,000-year-old house on South Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. The building was one of three roundhouses at Cladh Hallan, a prehistoric village named after a nearby modern graveyard. The site was once populated in the Bronze Age from 2200 B.C. to 800 B.C. — scientists were digging here to learn more about this era in Britain, where little was known until recently.

The researchers had found what were apparently the remains of a teenage girl and a 3-year-old child at the site. However, two other bodies looked especially strange — those of a man and a woman found in tight fetal positions as if they had been tightly wrapped up, reminiscent of "mummy bundles" seen in South America and other parts of the world. These bodies were apparently mummified on purpose, the first evidence of deliberate mummification in the ancient Old World outside of Egypt. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]
Evidence for mummy mix-ups
Evidence of this mummification lies in how all the bones in both these bodies were still "articulated" or in the same positions as they were in life, revealing that sinew and perhaps skin were still holding them together when they were buried. Carbon dating these remains and their surroundings revealed these bodies were buried up to 600 years after death — to keep bodies from rotting to pieces after such a long time, they must have been intentionally preserved, unlike the bodies of animals also buried at the site, which had been left to decay.
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Mineral alterations of the outer layer of the bones suggest they were entombed in acidic surroundings, such as those found in nearby peat bogs. Exposures to such bogs for a year or so would have mummified them, stopping microbes from decomposing the bodies by essentially tanning them in much the same way that animal skin is turned into leather.
Ancient writings suggest that embalming was practiced in prehistoric Europe, not just in Egypt. For instance, ancient Greek philosopher Poseidonius, writing in about 100 B.C., "visited Gaul and recorded that the Celts there embalmed the heads of their victims in cedar oil and kept them in chests," said researcher Mike Parker-Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield in England.
Bizarrely, the man's remains were composed of bones from three different people, possessing the torso and limbs of one man, the skull and neck of another, and the lower jaw from a third, possibly a woman.
The researchers made this discovery of his Frankenstein-like nature by analyzing his skeleton — for instance, evidence of arthritis was seen on the vertebrae of the neck, but not on the rest of the spine, revealing these parts came from different bodies. Also, the lower jaw had all its teeth, whereas those of the upper jaw were entirely missing, and the condition of the lower jaw's teeth revealed they once interacted with a full set of teeth in his upper jaw, showing they originally belonged to another man. [Image Gallery: Scanning Mummies for Disease]
To see if the woman's skeleton was also a composite, the researchers analyzed ancient DNA from the skull, lower jaw, right upper arm and right thighbone. This revealed that the lower jaw, arm bone and thighbone all came from different people. Data from the skull was inconclusive. (Oddly, the upper two teeth next to her front teeth had been removed and placed in each hand.)
The first composite was apparently assembled between 1260 B.C. and 1440 B.C., while the second composite was assembled between 1130 B.C. and 1310 B.C. "There is overlap, but the statistical probability is that they were assembled at different times," Parker-Pearson said.
Although one Frankenstein-like mix-up of body parts might be an accident, "the second instance makes this unlikely," Parker-Pearson said.
Mummification apparently took off in Britain about 1500 B.C. "at a time when land ownership — communal rather than private, most likely — was being marked by the construction of large-scale field systems," Parker-Pearson told LiveScience. "Rights to land would have depended on ancestral claims, so perhaps having the ancestors around 'in the flesh' was their prehistoric equivalent of a legal document."
"Merging different body parts of ancestors into a single person could represent the merging of different families and their lines of descent," Parker-Pearson said. "Perhaps this was a prelude to building the row of houses in which numerous different families are likely to have lived."
Mummies? Britain?
When the bones were first discovered, Parker-Pearson admitted, "some archaeologists were rightly skeptical," as mummification in the British Bronze Age was pretty much unheard of.
Even Parker-Pearson would've been skeptical of the finding, had he not studied the bones. "But since then, we have applied a battery of scientific methods, of which the ancient DNA analysis is the latest," he said. "Together with archaeological evidence from excavation, these analytical results make a fairly unassailable case for mummification and recombination."
"I don't think it implies any links with ancient Egypt or other distant civilizations at all," Parker-Pearson said about these findings. "Mummification is simple enough to do in your own kitchen, and has been surprisingly widespread among small-scale, traditional societies throughout the world in recent centuries."
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In fact, he added, the idea that Egyptian practices of mummification diffused elsewhere was discredited more than 50 years ago.
"Altogether, these results have completely changed our ideas about treatment of the dead in prehistoric Britain," Parker-Pearson said. "Other archaeologists are now identifying similar examples now that the breakthrough has been made — beforehand, it was just unthinkable."
For instance, he said, what may be two examples of human mummies from Down Farm in Dorset, excavated by Martin Green in 2009, even have drill holes in the long bones, suggesting that their limbs were strung together.
The scientists detailed their findings in the August issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

 

Golden Crusade Hoard Found in Israel

The coins may be worth $500,000 and are inscribed with blessings, names of sultans and more.

 

THE GIST
  • The treasure was found buried in a settlement occupied by ancient Roman forces.
  • The team from Tel Aviv University determined the coins date to the 10-13th century.
  • The hoard of 108 coins make this the largest ever found in Israel.
Gold coins uncovered in a buried potsherd at Apllonia National Park in Israel may be worth half a million dollars or more.

Gold coins uncovered in a buried potsherd at Apllonia National Park in Israel may be worth half a million dollars or more.
Oren Tal, Tel Aviv University

Israeli archaeologists have found buried treasure: more than 100 gold dinar coins from the time of the Crusades, bearing the names and legends of local sultans, blessings and more -- and worth as much as $500,000.
The joint team from Tel Aviv University and Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority were working at Apollonia National Park, an ancient Roman settlement on the coast used by the Crusaders between 1241 and 1265, when they literally found a pot of gold.
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“All in all, we found some 108 dinars and quarter dinars, which makes it one of the largest gold coin hoards discovered in a medieval site in the land of Israel,” Prof. Oren Tal, chairman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology, told FoxNews.com.
The Christian order of the Knights Hospitaller had taken up residence in the castle in Apollonia; it was one of their most important fortresses in the area. The hoard of coins was buried on the eve of the site's downfall after a long siege by a large and well-prepared Muslim army.
Since its destruction in late April 1265 it was never resettled. As the destruction of the well-fortified castle grew near, one of the Crusader’s leaders sought to hide his stash in a potsherd, possibly to retrieve it later on.
“It was in a small juglet, and it was partly broken. The idea was to put something broken in the ground and fill it with sand, in order to hide the gold coins within,” Tal told FoxNews.com. “If by chance somebody were to find the juglet, he won’t excavate it, he won’t look inside it to find the gold coins.”
“Once we started to sift it, the gold came out.”
The hoard of coins themselves -- found on June 21, 2012, by Mati Johananoff, a student of TAU Department of Archaeology -- date to the times of the Fatimid empire, which dominated northern Africa and parts of the Middle East at the time. Tal estimates their date to the 10th or 11th century, although they were circulated in the 13th century.
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“Some were minted some 250 to 300 years before they were used by the Hospitaller knights,” he explained. The coins are covered in icons and inscriptions: the names and legends of local sultans, Tal said, as well as blessings.
Some also bear a date, and even a mint mark, a code that indicates where it was minted, whether Alexandria, Tripoli, or another ancient mint.
“Fatimid coins are very difficult to study because they are so informative,” Tal told FoxNews.com. “The legends are very long, the letters are sometimes difficult to decipher.”
The coins are clearly of great value, both historically and intrinsically, though putting a price tag on them is no easy feat: Value is a flexible thing, Tal explained. Israeli newspaper Haaretz pegged the find at $100,000. Tal noted that Fatmid Dinars sell for $3,000 to $5,000 apiece, meaning the stash could be worth closer to half a million.
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Once his team has finished deciphering the coins and decoding their inscriptions, they will be transferred to a museum. But with such a valuable find, there’s already a quarrel between two archaeologically oriented museums over which will host them.
Tal said the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is in the running, as is the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.
“Both want the coins on display. It’s not for us to decide,” Tal said.

 

'First' Americans Were Not Alone

Stone points found in an Oregon cave suggest a whole group of people existed at the same time as the Clovis. 

 

THE GIST
  • A newly discovered American culture was present during, or even before, the Clovis culture in western North America.
  • The Western Stemmed culture of at least 13,200 years ago is defined by its distinctive projectile points.
  • Evidence is mounting that multiple migrations led to the first populating of the Americas.
points

Bases of three Western Stemmed projectile points found in Oregon's Paisley Caves.
Jim Barlow

The first known people to settle America can now be divided into at least two cultures, the Clovis and the recently discovered "Western Stemmed" tradition, according to new research.
Researchers excavating an Oregon cave, found traces and unique tools made by a second people, who lived more than 13,200 years ago. The discovery, described in the latest issue of Science, strengthens the idea that that people moved into the Americas in several waves of migrations, not just one.
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"From our results, it is likely that we have at least two independent migration events to the lower 48 states," co-author Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen's Center for GeoGenetics told Discovery News. "Additionally, we previously showed by sequencing the first ancient human genome (that of a 4,000-year-old paleoeskimo) that there have been at least two independent migrations into the Arctic parts of North America, so as I see it, it's likely we have at least around four migration events."
Willerslev added that three of these groups came from Asia, but the origins of the Clovis culture remain a mystery. What's now clear is that the newly discovered Western Stemmed culture was present at least 13,200 years ago, during or even before the Clovis culture in western North America.
The Clovis culture is defined by its "points," used for hunting. Lead author Dennis Jenkins explained that Clovis points are generally large "and have one or more distinctive flute flakes removed from the base so that a channel runs from the base up the blade roughly half way or slightly more to the tip."
Western Stemmed points, on the other hand, "are narrower, sometimes thicker, and thinned by percussion and pressure flakes from the edges to the midline." They were used as dart and thrusting spear tips, while Clovis points are generally assumed to be lance points.
The researchers aren't certain why these technologies diverged, probably long ago, from a common weapon-making tradition in Siberia or Asia. Since the early Americans only used one or the other method, the technologies suggest that the Clovis culture may have arisen in the Southeastern United States and moved west, while the Western Stemmed tradition began, perhaps earlier, in the West and moved east.
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Jenkins, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, and his team analyzed Western Stemmed points from Paisley Caves, located about 220 miles southeast of Eugene, Oregon. The researchers also studied dried human feces, bones, sagebrush twigs and other artifacts excavated from well-stratified layers of silt in the ancient caves.
Based on the analysis, it's believed that the people who lived at the same time as the Clovis were "broad range foragers, taking large game whenever possible, but also well adapted to a desert mosaic plant community similar, but not identical to, that of the northern Great Basin today," Jenkins shared.
If the oldest fossilized feces found in the caves (dating to 14,300 years ago) belonged to the Western Stemmed occupations, then the individuals hunted now-extinct horses, camels and elephants, in addition to deer, elk, mountain sheep, bison, waterfowl, rabbits and other animals.
HOWSTUFFWORKS: Were the Clovis the first Americans?
In a separate paper published in Nature this week, David Reich, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, and his team found that Native Americans descend from at least three streams of Asian gene flow. Most come from a single ancestral population, but the Eskimo-Aleut language speakers from the Arctic and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada inherit some of their ancestry from different streams.
The way that these people entered the Americas might also have varied.
For decades, researchers have speculated that a temporary land bridge existed between Russia and Alaska. Evidence is also mounting for a "kelp highway" from Japan to Kamchatka, along the south coast of Beringia and Alaska, then southward down the Northwest Coast to California.
As to how people first wound up in Oregon, Jenkins said, "It is possible they represent a migration down the Pacific Coast followed by a migration inland."

 

Ancient Hellenistic Harbor Found in Israel


Akko harbor
The remains of a magnificent ancient harbor have emerged from a dig in Akko (Acre), a city at the northern tip of Haifa Bay in Israel.
Dating back to the Hellenistic period (third-second centuries BC), the port was Israel's largest and most important at the time.
Archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authority made the discovery as they unearthed large mooring stones that were incorporated in the quay. They were used to secure sailing vessels that anchored in the harbor about 2,300 years ago.
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In some of the stones the archaeologists found a hole for inserting a wooden pole -– probably for mooring and/or dragging the boat.
This was most likely a military harbor, according to Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority,
Mooring stone
"A find was uncovered recently that suggests we are excavating part of the military port of Akko. We are talking about an impressive section of stone pavement about 8 meters long by about 5 meters wide," Sharvit said.
Delineated on both sides by two impressive stone walls built in the Phoenician manner, the floor sloped slightly toward the south. The archaeologists found a small amount of stone collapse in its center.
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"Presumably this is a slipway, an installation that was used for lifting boats onto the shore, probably warships in this case," Sharvit said.
"Only further archaeological excavations will corroborate or invalidate this theory," he added.
Bowl
Along with the mooring stones, the archaeologists found thousands of pottery fragments, among which are dozens of intact vessels and metallic objects.
Preliminary identification indicates that many of them come from islands in the Aegean Sea, including Knidos, Rhodes, Kos and others, as well as other port cities located along the Mediterranean coast.
The dig also uncovered a mound of collapsed large dressed stones that apparently belonged to major buildings or installations.
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"What emerges from these finds is a clear picture of systematic and deliberate destruction of the port facilities that occurred in antiquity," Sharvit said.
He added that the excavation will continue in the attempt to to clarify if there is a connection between the destruction in the harbor and the destruction wrought by Ptolemy in 312 BC. , or by some other event such as the Hasmonean revolt in 167 B.

Hopes of Finding Earhart's Plane Fade


AE_Electra
As the expedition to Nikumaroro nears an end, hopes to identify pieces of Amelia Earhart's plane are waning.
A difficult environment and a number of technical issues have plagued the underwater search in the waters off the tiny uninhabited island between Hawaii and Australia where the legendary aviator may have landed and died as a castaway 75 years ago.
Carried out by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), the hunt is due to end in the next few hours.
"After discussion and analysis of the results so far, they have decided that there is very little point in extending the trip," Patricia Thrasher, TIGHAR's president, said.
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She added that the problem is the nature of the reef slope.
It's a vertical cliff from 110 feet down to 250 feet, with a shelf that runs along that contour from the spot where an unidentified object was photographed three months after Earhart's disappearance to the wreck of the British steamer SS Norwich City, which went aground on the island's reef in 1929.
"The airplane could have come to rest there briefly and lost pieces, but they have not found anything at all on that ledge. From there the cliff goes almost vertically down to 1,000 to 1,200 feet, with another ledge," Thrasher said.
TIGHAR researchers will spend the rest of the time searching that area.
"That is where the Norwich City wreckage came to rest, so maybe that's where the airplane stopped," Thrasher said.
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Disappointingly, two promising targets identified a couple of days ago, turned out to be a large coral boulder and a much degraded piece of the Norwich City's keel.
Thrasher admitted that the question of searching for an airplane in such a difficult environment -- filled with nooks and crannies and caves and projections-- is even more basic than "what ledge" or "how far down."
"Given what we now know about this place, is it reasonable to think that an airplane which sank here 75 years ago is findable? It would be easy to go over and over and over the same territory for weeks and still not really cover it all. The aircraft could have floated away, as well," Thrasher said.
Get Full Coverage of the Amelia Earhart story here.
Nevertheless, TIGHAR has collected an enormous amount of data, which is certainly of great value to anyone doing ocean and reef research in that area.
"We won't know exactly how much, or what it all means, until it's integrated and analyzed...We have no idea what might be discovered as we pull together all the pieces without the fog of war to distract us," Ric Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director, said.

Pharaoh Snefru's Playground In the Desert


Red pyramid
Pharaoh Snefru, the "King of the Pyramids," developed his building skills over a 2.3 square mile playground in the desert, according to a new study into the geology of the Dahshur royal necropolis in Egypt.
The first king of the 4th dynasty, Snefru (reigned 2575-2551 BC) built Egypt’s first true pyramid at Dashur, after a couple of failures. The task was overshadowed by his son Khufu, or Cheops, when he built the Great Pyramid at Giza.
More than 3.5 million cubic meters (123 million cubic feet) of building material were mined and transported at Dashur, some 20 miles from Cairo, yet very little evidence remains of what went on at the pyramid practice site some 4500 years ago. Nature wiped virtually any trace of human activity.
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To expose the ancient pyramid playground, a team of Earth scientists from Germany turned to fractals.
Fractals are natural or artificially created geometric patterns that form designs. These appear to repeat themselves over and over when magnified.
Deltas created where rivers meet the ocean often display fractal properties. Dissected by river channels which drain into the floodplain of the Nile, the area around Dahshur was indeed supposed to show an abundance of natural fractals. The new study showed that was’t really the case.
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Arne Ramisch of the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and colleagues from the German Archaeological Institute in Egypt created a digital model of the topography around Dahshur and investigated the region using fractal pattern recognition analysis.
The researchers discovered distinct differences "between natural and human-shaped areas," they wrote in the journal Quaternary International.
In particular, the researchers identified a huge non-fractal footprint around the pyramids.
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The surprisingly large area -– at least 2.3 square miles –- did not feature the natural fractal geometry, suggesting that it was modified under the orders of Snefru and other pharaohs of the Old Kingdom.
According to the researchers, the lack of natural fractals suggests that the site was once occupied by broad terraces several miles long.
They would have "increased the sense of monumentality of the pyramids," Ramisch told New Scientist.

Ancient Life-Size Lion Statues Baffle Scientists

Each of the two life-sized statues weighs about 5 tons and archaeologists aren't sure what they were used for.

 

THE GIST
  • Two massive life-sized lion statues were found in what is now Turkey.
  • The statues date to between 1400 and 1200 B.C.
  • The lions may have been part of a monument for a sacred water spring.
lion

A life-size granite lion sculpture discovered in the town of Karakiz in Turkey. Dating back more than 3,200 years, to the time of the Hittite Empire, the lion is shown "prowling forward" with rippling muscles and a curved tail.
Photo copyright American Journal of Archaeology

Two sculptures of life-size lions, each weighing about 5 tons in antiquity, have been discovered in what is now Turkey, with archaeologists perplexed over what the granite cats were used for.
One idea is that the statues, created between 1400 and 1200 B.C., were meant to be part of a monument for a sacred water spring, the researchers said.
The lifelike lions were created by the Hittites who controlled a vast empire in the region at a time when the Asiatic lion roamed the foothills of Turkey.
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"The lions are prowling forward, their heads slightly lowered; the tops of their heads are barely higher than the napes," write Geoffrey Summers, of the Middle East Technical University, and researcher Erol Özen in an article published in the most recent edition of the American Journal of Archaeology.
The two lion sculptures have stylistic differences and were made by different sculptors. The lion sculpture found in the village of Karakiz is particularly lifelike, with rippling muscles and a tail that curves around the back of the granite boulder.
"The sculptors certainly knew what lions looked like," Summers told LiveScience in an interview. He said that both archaeological and ancient written records indicate that the Asiatic lion, now extinct in Turkey, was still very much around, some even being kept by the Hittites in pits.
Curiously the sculpture at Karakiz has an orange color caused by the oxidization of minerals in the stone. Summers said that he doesn't believe it had this color when it was first carved. (Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures)
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The story of the discovery of the massive lions began in 2001, when Özen, at the time director of the Yozgat Museum, was alerted to the existence of the ancient quarry by a man from Karakiz village and an official from the Ministry of Culture. An extensive search of the area was undertaken in spring 2002 with fieldwork occurring in the following years.
Looters, however, beat the archaeologists to the catch. The Karakiz lion was found dynamited in two, likely in the mistaken belief that it contained hidden treasure. "There's this belief that monuments like this contain treasure," said Summers, explaining that the dynamiting of monuments is a problem in Turkey. "It makes the Turkish newspapers every month or so."
The second lion, found to the northeast of the village, had also been split in two. As a result of this destruction both lion sculptures, which originally were paired with another, now mainly have one lion intact.
The danger of new looting loomed over the researchers while they went about their work. In the summer of 2008 evidence of "fresh treasure hunting" was found at the ancient quarry along with damage to a drum-shaped rock that, in antiquity, was in the process of being carved.
What were they intended for?
The discovery of the massive lions, along with other pieces in the quarry, such as a large stone basin about 7 feet (2 meters) in diameter, left the archaeologists with a mystery — what were they intended for? (History's Most Overlooked Mysteries)
A search of the surrounding area revealed no evidence of a Hittite settlement dating back to the time of the statues. Also, the sheer size of the sculptures meant that the sculptors likely did not intend to move them very far.
Summers hypothesizes that, rather than being meant for a palace or a great city, the lions were being created for a monument to mark something else – water.
"I think it's highly likely that that monument was going to be associated with one of the very copious springs that are quite close," he said in the interview. "There are good parallels for associations of Hittite sculptural traditions with water sources."
Indeed one well-known monument site, known as Eflatun P?nar, holds a sacred pool that "is fed by a spring beneath the pool itself," write Yi?it Erbil and Alice Mouton in an article that was published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies. The two researchers were writing about water religions in ancient Anatolia (Turkey).
"According to the Hittite cuneiform texts, water was seen as an effective purifying element," Erbil and Mouton write, "used in the form of lustrations or even full baths during ritual performances, its cleansing power is self-evident."
To the Hittites the natural world, springs included, was a place of great religious importance, one worthy of monuments with giant lions. "These things (water sources) were sacred, just as their mountains were sacred," Summers said.

 

Warrior King Statue Found in Mediterranean City

The statue dates to 1000 B.C. and depicts a curly-haired man gripping a spear and a sheath of wheat.

 

THE GIST
  • A statue of a warrior king found in what now is Turkey once stood almost 13 feet tall.
  • The statue was likely meant to guard a passageway to a Neo-Hittite royal city.
kunulua statue

A newly excavated statue standing 5 feet (1.5 m) tall may have represented a Neo-Hittite king.
Jennifer Jackson

A newly discovered statue of a curly-haired man gripping a spear and a sheath of wheat once guarded the upper citadel of an ancient kingdom's capital.
The enormous sculpture, which is intact from about the waist up, stands almost 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, suggesting that its full height with legs would have been between 11 and 13 feet (3.5 to 4 m). Alongside the statue, archaeologists found another carving, a semicircular column base bearing the images of a sphinx and a winged bull.
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The pieces date back to about 1000 B.C. to 738 B.C. and belong to the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina in what is now southeastern Turkey. They were found at what would have been a gate to the upper citadel of the capital, Kunulua. An international team of archaeologists on the Tayinat Archaeological Project are excavating the ruins.
The Neo-Hittites were a group of civilizations that arose along the eastern Mediterranean after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1000 B.C. When the statues were carved, the area was emerging from the Bronze Age and entering into the Iron Age.
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The male sculpture boasts a beard and inlaid eyes made of white and black stone. He wears a crescent-shaped pectoral shield on his chest and lion-head bracelets on his arms. On his back, a long inscription records the accomplishments of Suppiluliuma, the name of a king of Patina already known to have banded together with Syrian forces in 858 B.C. to face an invasion by Neo-Assyrians. (Top 10 Battles for the Control of Iraq)
The column base stands about 3 feet (1 m) tall, with a diameter of 35 inches (90 centimeters). The column likely stood against a wall, as only the front is decorated with carvings of a winged bull flanked by a sphinx.
HOWSTUFFWORKS: Who Were the Hittites?
The presence of such statues was common in Neo-Hittite royal cities, the researchers said. The newly discovered carvings would have guarded a passageway of gates to the heart of the city.
"The two pieces appear to have been ritually buried in the paved stone surface of the central passageway," Tayinat Project director Tim Harrison, a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto, said in a statement.
The passageway and gates seems to have been destroyed in 738 B.C., when Assyrian forces conquered the Neo-Hittite city. The area then appears to have been paved over and turned into a courtyard. Archaeologists have also uncovered smashed Neo-Hittite slabs and pillars as well as two carved life-size lions.

 

Samson Legend Gains Substance with New Find


Samson
A small stone seal found in Israel could be the first archaeological evidence of the story of Samson, the Bible's most famous strongman.
Less than an inch in diameter, the seal depicts a man with long hair fighting a large animal with a feline tail.
The seal was excavated at the Tell Beit Shemesh site in the Judaean Hills near Jerusalem at a level that dates to roughly the 11th century BC.
Biblically speaking, this was during the time when the Jews were led by leaders known as Judges, one of whom was Samson.
The location where the stone seal was unearthed, close to the Sorek river that marked the ancient border between Israelite and Philistine territories, suggests the figure could represent the Biblical slayer of Philistines.
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A character that jumped from the Old Testament into legend, Samson was given supernatural strength by God to overcome his enemies.
The strength, which Samson discovered after encountering a lion and ripping it apart with his bare hands, was contained in his long hair.
Samson, who killed 1,000 Philistines single-handedly with a donkey jawbone and then gloated over his triumph, was seduced by Delilah, a Philistine woman who lived in the valley of Sorek. She cut his long hair, depriving him of his strength and resulting in his imprisonment by the Philistines, who blinded him and put him to work grinding grain at Gaza.
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Samson regained his strength one final time, when he brought the temple of Dagon down upon himself with the Philistines, killing "many more as he died than while he lived," according to the Book of Judges.
Despite the circumstancial evidence, excavation directors Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University do not actually claim that the figure on the seal is the Biblical Samson. Rather, the seal probably indicates that a story was being told at the time of a hero who fought a lion.
"Eventually it found its way into the biblical text and onto the seal," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The archaeologists also found a large number of pig bones near the river Sorek on the Philistines territory, while they unearthed nearly none on the Israeli land.
This would suggest the locals chose not to eat pork to characterize themselves from the Philistines.
“These details add a legendary air to the social process in which the two hostile groups honed their separate identities, the way it happens along many borders today," Bunimovitz told Haaretz.

Fossil Dealer Claims Disputed Tyrannosaur

A Florida fossil dealer who attempted to sell a fossilized tyrannosaur skeleton at an auction before Mongolia's president intervened has made it clear he wants it back.

 

THE GIST
  • The dinosaur, a Tarbosaurus bataar, is now the subject of a federal lawsuit so it can be returned to Mongolia.
  • In a court filing, fossil dealer Eric Prokopi put the feds on notice that he plans to fight their attempt to take over ownership of it.
T. bataar

Just as this dinosaur specimen, a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, went up for auction on May 20, a question arose as to whether or not it was taken illegally from Mongolia. 
Wynne Parry

A tyrannosaur may be headed for trial.
A Florida fossil dealer who attempted to sell a fossilized tyrannosaur skeleton at an auction before Mongolia's president intervened has made it clear he wants it back.
The dinosaur, a Tarbosaurus bataar, is now the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office seeking to take ownership of the dinosaur so it can be returned to Mongolia, from which paleontologists and Mongolia President Elbegdorj Tsakhia say it was taken illegally.
In a court filing on July 27, fossil dealer Eric Prokopi put the feds on notice that he plans to fight their attempt to take over ownership of it.
A claim on the fossils
According to the new claim he filed, Prokopi "purchased components of the (tyrannosaur) on the international market and then spent a year of his life and considerable expense identifying, restoring and mounting and preparing it." (Album: Battle over a Tarbosaurus)
PHOTOS: Evolution Before Your Eyes
The document refers to the dinosaur fossils as a "display piece."
This terminology reflects the work Prokopi put into preparing the mounted dinosaur, Prokopi's attorney Michael McCullough said.
"We are just trying to create a factual distinction between a fossil which is imported and a finished piece which is what was being sold at the auction," McCullough said.
Dinosaur dispute
Although the fossils fetched nearly $1.1 million at auction, the sale did not go through because of the Mongolian claim on the fossils. Paleontologists have supported this claim, saying that clearly identifiable remains for Tarbosaurus bataar, an Asian relative of T. rex, are only known to have come from a rock formation located within Mongolia.
Prokopi has questioned that, writing in a statement to the media in June that the bones could have come from elsewhere. "Other than (from) the diggers, there is no way for anyone to know for certain when or where the specimen was collected."
"I'm just a guy in Gainesville, Florida, trying to support my family, not some international bone smuggler," he wrote.
The case continues
Had no one put in a claim on the fossils, the federal government would have taken legal possession of them without a trial. Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has declared his intention to return the dinosaur to Mongolia.
Anyone else with an interest in the dinosaur has until Aug. 26 to file a claim.
NUGGET: US Sues To Send T. Bar Home
According to customs documents, the fossils were shipped to Prokopi in 2010 from Chris Moore, of Forge Fossils in England. Moore would have split the proceeds of the sale with Prokopi, according to a consignment contract with Heritage Auctions, the auction house that offered the dinosaur for sale. Moore has not been named in the federal lawsuit. His attorney, John Cahill, told LiveScience by email: "Mr. Moore is not involved in the case and has no interest in becoming involved in it." (Image Gallery: Dinosaur Fossils)
Prokopi's attorneys McCullough and Peter Tompa declined to discuss the arrangement between the two fossil dealers.
Fossil law
The international legal landscape for fossils is complicated, since laws regarding fossil ownership and export vary by country. For instance, Mongolian law makes fossils found within its boundaries property of the state, but U.S. law allows for the collection and sale of fossils dug up on private land with permission by the land owner. But this case involves probable Mongolian fossils offered for sale in the United States.
"Until this case is tried in court, I don't know if there are any laws that have been broken here in the U.S.," said George Winters, executive director of the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences (AAPS), a professional organization whose members include commercial dealers and collectors.
Ultimately, Winters said he suspects this case will result in changes to U.S. law.
"I am assuming that the trade agreements with these countries (such as Mongolia, which don't allow for the export of fossils) will at some point in time be amended to possibly ban the sale or importation of that material," he said.
It's not difficult to find fossils from the same species of dinosaur or others quite likely taken from Mongolia and listed in auction catalogs or on eBay.
HSW: Which of today's animals lived alongside dinosaurs?
To help collectors and dealers make sure what they are excavating or buying is legal, Winters is compiling individual nations' laws on fossils for a revised edition of Donald Wolberg's book "Collecting the Natural World" (Geoscience Press, 1997). Winters also plans to post the information on the AAPS journal website.
If you buy or collect fossils abroad, knowing the law of the country you are visiting is important. For example, in China, tourists may legally purchase fossils, but when they attempt to take their purchases home, they may be detained, even jailed, since Chinese law does not permit the export of fossils, Winters said.

 

Near-Intact Roman Ship Holds Jars of Food


Roman_ship_with_jars
An almost intact Roman ship has been found in the sea off the town on Varazze, some 18 miles from Genova, Italy.
The ship, a navis oneraria, or merchant vessel, was located at a depth of about 200 feet thanks to a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) following tips from fishermen who had caught some jars in their nets.
NEWS: Smuggled Cargo Found on Ancient Roman Ship
The ship sank about 2,000 years ago on her trade route between Spain and central Italy with a full cargo of more than 200 amphorae.
Test on some of the recovered jars revealed they contained pickled fish, grain, wine and oil. The foodstuffs were traded in Spain for other goods.
"There are some broken jars around the wreck, but we believe that most of the amphorae inside the ship are still sealed and food filled," Lt. Col. Francesco Schilardi, who led the Carabinieri Subacquei (police divers), said.
ANALYSIS: Roman Shipwreck Full of Wine Jars Found
The ship, which dates to sometime between the 1st Century B.C. and the 1st Century A.D., is hidden under layers of mud on the seabed, which has left the wreck and its cargo intact.
The vessel will remain hidden at the bottom of the sea until Italian authorities decide whether to raise it or not.
"Right now the area of the finding has been secured, and no fishing or water traffic is allowed," Lt. Col. Schilardi said.

Lost Egyptian Pyramids Found?


Pyramids-zoom
Two possible pyramid complexes might have been found in Egypt, according to a Google Earth satellite imagery survey.
Located about 90 miles apart, the sites contain unusual grouping of mounds with intriguing features and orientations, said satellite archaeology researcher Angela Micol of Maiden, N.C.
One site in Upper Egypt, just 12 miles from the city of Abu Sidhum along the Nile, features four mounds each with a larger, triangular-shaped plateau.
The two larger mounds at this site are approximately 250 feet in width, with two smaller mounds approximately 100 feet in width.
NEWS: Egyptian Pyramids Found With NASA Satellite
The site complex is arranged in a very clear formation with the large mound extending a width of approximately 620 feet -- almost three times the size of the Great Pyramid.
"Upon closer examination of the formation, this mound appears to have a very flat top and a curiously symmetrical triangular shape that has been heavily eroded with time," Micol wrote in her website Google Earth Anomalies.
Intriguingly, when zooming in on the top of the triangular formation, two circular, 20-foot-wide features appear almost in the very center of the triangle.
Pyramids-2-zoom
Some 90 miles north near the Fayoum oasis, the second possible pyramid complex contains a four-sided, truncated mound that is approximately 150 feet wide.
ANALYSIS: Satellite Views Reveal Early Human Settlements
"It has a distinct square center which is very unusual for a mound of this size and it almost seems pyramidal when seen from above," Micol wrote.
Located just 1.5 miles south east of the ancient town of Dimai, the site also contains three smaller mounds in a very clear formation, "similar to the diagonal alignment of the Giza Plateau pyramids," Micol stated in a press release.
"The color of the mounds is dark and similar to the material composition of Dimai's walls which are made of mudbrick and stone," the researcher wrote.
HOWSTUFFWORKS: Building the Pyramids
Founded in the third century B.C. under the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309 B.C.–246 B.C.), Dimai was built on top of an earlier neolithic settlement.
Also known as Dimeh al-Siba, Dimeh of the Lions, the town is surrounded by a mudbrick wall that stretches up to 32 feet high and 16 feet thick, and features at its center a ruined stone temple dedicated to the crocodile god Soknopaios.
Indeed, the town's Greek name, Soknopaiou Nesos, means "Island of Soknopaios."
Pyramid-3-zoom
Well known to scholars for the amount of papyri and other inscribed material found among its ruins, Dimai reached its peak during the first and second century A.D. thanks to a major trade route. It was abandoned during the mid-third century A.D.
According to Micol, both sites have been verified as undiscovered by Egyptologist and pyramid expert Nabil Selim, whose findings include the pyramid called Sinki at Abydos and the Dry Moat surrounding the Step pyramid complex at Saqqara.
Selim found that the smaller 100-foot mounds at the site near Abu Sidhum are a similar size as the 13th Dynasty Egyptian pyramids, if a square base can be discovered.
BIG PIC: Man Etches Name in Sand, Visible from Space
"The images speak for themselves. It's very obvious what the sites may contain but field research is needed to verify they are, in fact, pyramids," Micol said.
The researcher has previously located several possible archaeological sites with Google Earth, including a potential underwater city off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula.
She believes the use of infrared imagery will allow scientists to see the extent of the complexes in greater detail.
The sites have been sent to Egyptologists and researchers for further investigation and "ground truthing," she said.

Skeleton Army Rises from Bog


Skull-zoom
The remains of hundreds of warriors have resurfaced from a Danish bog, suggesting that a violent event took place at the site about 2,000 years ago.
Discovered in the Alken Enge wetlands near Lake Mossø in East Jutland, Denmark, the skeletal remains tell the story of an entire army's apparent sacrifice.
NEWS: Prehistoric Human Brain Found Pickled in Bog
Following work done in 2009, archaeologists have so far unearthed the hacked bones of more than 200 individuals.
Skeletal remains include a fractured skull and a sliced thighbone. An abundance of well preserved axes, spears, clubs and shields have been also unearthed.
Bogwarriors
"It's clear that this must have been a quite far-reaching and dramatic event that must have had profound effect on the society of the time," project manager Mads Kähler Holst, professor of archaeology at Aarhus University, said.
Showing distinct weapon marks, the Iron Age bones can be found all over a large area.
NEWS: Found: Ancient Warrior's Helmet, Owner Unknown
"We've done small test digs at different places in a 40-hectare (100-acre) wetlands area, and new finds keep emerging," Ejvind Hertz of Skanderborg Museum, who is directing the dig, said.
In fact, the find is so massive that the archaeologists aren't counting on being able to excavate all of it.
Skull2-zoom
Researchers believe that the warriors lost a battle to an opposing tribe.
NEWS: China Unearths Over 100 New Terracotta Warriors
They were then sacrificed and thrown into a lake that has since dried into a bog, preserving the remains.
Detailed analyses of the slaughtered warriors will try to answer questions about who they were, where they came from and why they were sacrificed. 

Skull Resets Human Migration Clock

Fragments of a human skull found in Laos suggest humans had a single, rapid migration to Asia.

 

THE GIST
  • A skull found in Laos suggests human migrated to southern Asia 20,000 years earlier than thought.
  • The discovery suggests that the first modern humans to leave Africa spread around the world much earlier.
skull

A reconstruction of the human skull discovered in Tam Pa Ling. 
F. Demeter

Newfound pieces of human skull from "the Cave of the Monkeys" in Laos are the earliest skeletal evidence yet that humans once had an ancient, rapid migration to Asia.
Anatomically modern humans first arose about 200,000 years ago in Africa. When and how our lineage then dispersed out of Africa has long proven controversial.
PHOTOS: Humans vs. Neanderthals, How Did We Win?
Archaeological evidence and genetic data suggest that modern humans rapidly migrated out of Africa and into Southeast Asia by at least 60,000 years ago. However, complicating this notion is the notable absence of fossil evidence for modern human occupation in mainland Southeast Asia, likely because those bones do not survive well in the warm, tropical region.
Now a partial skull from Tam Pa Ling, "the Cave of the Monkeys" in northern Laos helps fill in this mysterious gap in the fossil record. (See Photos of "Monkey Cave" Fossils)
"Most surprising is the fact that we found anything at all," researcher Laura Lynn Shackelford, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Illinois, told LiveScience. "Most people didn't think we'd find anything in these caves, or even in the region where we're working in mainland Southeast Asia. But we're stubborn, gone where no one's really looked before, or at least in almost a century."
Rough terrain, persistent scientists
The fossils were discovered in 2009 in the limestone cave, which is located at the top of the Pa Hang Mountain 3,840 feet (1,170 meters) above sea level.
PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors
"The cave is surrounded by lots of papaya and banana trees, so a troop of monkeys likes to come and forage there, therefore its name," Shackelford said.
There were many challenges working in this area.
"It's incredibly difficult to access the site — it's only 150 miles (240 kilometers) from the capital, but it takes us two days to drive there because of the rough terrain," Shackelford said. "We have to hike up the side of a cliff, do a bit of rock-climbing to get to the mouth of the cave, and then going in, we have to go 60 meters (200 ft) down a slope of wet clay. We also have to carry a generator and lights with us to see in the cave. We have to push pigs out of the way to get through the jungle — there are just pigs wandering around there." (Amazing Caves: Photos of Earth's Innards)
"Every bit of clay has to be removed and taken back up by hand, trowel and bucket, so work is incredibly slow," she added. "We only go in the dry season in the winter, so we don't really have to deal with insects and snakes — well, we did have snakes fall into the pit while excavating. And in the cave, we've had more than our fair share of spiders and bats."
Oldest bones of modern humans
No artifacts were found at the site, nor were signs of human occupation.
"We think this fossil was outside with other fauna and flora, and during the rainy season, rain washed it into the cave," Shackelford said. "In subsequent seasons, more sediment washed into the cave and covered it."
The shape of the bone and teeth is distinctly anatomically modern human, not like those of an extinct lineage such as the Neanderthals. A variety of dating techniques of the sediments surrounding the fossils suggests they are at least 46,000 to 51,000 years old, and direct dating of the bone suggests a maximum age of about 63,000 years. This makes these fossils the earliest skeletal evidence for anatomically modern humans east of the Middle East.
These findings "change the thinking regarding modern human migration routes into Asia, that there were more routes of dispersal than previously thought," Shackelford said.
"The typical thinking was that once modern humans hugged the coastline to go from India to Southeast Asia, they went southward into Indonesia and Australasia (the region comprising Australia, New Zealand and neighboring Pacific islands)," she explained. "We think they absolutely did that, but we're also suggesting other populations probably went north or northeast toward China, and some went through the mountains into mainland Southeast Asia, taking advantage of river systems. Beforehand, no one thought they would have gone into the mountains of Laos, Vietnam and Thailand."
The researchers are now attempting to extract DNA from these fossils to see how related they may or may not be to later humans that once lived or currently live in the area. In the future, "the work we have is pretty boundless -- there are literally thousands of limestone caves we can work on in this area to look for early modern humans," Shackelford said. "We can work here for the rest of our careers or lives and not see all the caves."
The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 20 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Roman Curses Appear on Ancient Tablet


Curse_tablet
An ancient Roman lead scroll unearthed in England three years ago has turned out to be a curse intended to cause misfortune to more than a dozen people, according to new research.
Found in East Farleigh, U.K., in the filling of a 3rd to 4th Century AD building that may have originally been a temple, the scroll was made of a 2.3- by 3.9-inch inscribed lead tablet.
Popular in the Greek and Roman world, these sorts of "black magic" curses called upon gods to torment specific victims.
Rolled up to conceal their inscriptions, the tablets were either nailed to the wall of a temple or buried in places considered to be close to the underworld, such as graves, springs or wells.
ANALYSIS: King Tut’s' Many Curses
The scroll, unearthed in the Kent village had been carefully rolled up and buried, most likely in the third century AD, similar to other curse tablets found throughout Europe.
The researchers tried to read the fragile scroll without unrolling it by using a technique called neutron computed tomography imaging at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, but "the resolution was not sufficient to discern any writing on it," said the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group, which made the finding.
As the curse tablet, or defixio, was unrolled, the inscribed letters became visible under a scanning electron microscope.
Curse_tablet_enhanced
Roger Tomlin, lecturer in late Roman history at Wolfson College, Oxford, and an authority on Roman inscriptions, was finally able to decode the inscribed text.
"The tablet is not necessarily complete, but what there is consists of two columns of personal names," Tomlin told Discovery News.
He deciphered the Latin names Sacratus, Constitutus, Memorianus, Constant[...] and the Celtic names (Atr)ectus and Atidenus. Eight other names are incomplete.
NEWS: Why Do People Swear?
Interestingly, the scribe wrote a few of the names backward or upside down.
Experts speculated that this was probably intended to invoke "sympathetic magic" and make life especially difficult for the named and shamed individuals.
However, the motive of the curse and the curse itself remain a mystery.
"No god is named. Indeed, we cannot be sure that we have the beginning of the text," Tomlin said.
Curse_tablet_names
Overall, more than 200 curse tablets have been found in Britain. The largest collection was found in the thermal spring at Bath, -- about 100 tablets -- and are displayed in the Roman Baths Museum.
The second-largest collection is from the Roman temple at Uley, and some are displayed in the British Museum.
Most curses related to thefts and called upon a god to fulfill the malevolent wishes detailed in the inscriptions.
One of the tablets from Bath, for example, prayed that its victim should "become as liquid as water," while another on display at the British Museum cursed "Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory."
According to the Maidstone Area archaeologists, it is reasonable to assume that the names listed were of people who lived at the site.
ANALYSIS: Reunited Pompeii Couple Finds Permanent Home
"Since the Romans were the first inhabitants of England who could read and write, they represent the earliest inhabitants of East Farleigh that we may ever be able to put a name to," they said.
Further conservation work will be carried out on the scroll starting at the end of the month. Experts hope that this will result in more letters becoming visible.

Dinosaur Footprint Found at NASA Center

Nodosaur-print
For decades, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have been looking into the heavens to better understand our place in the universe, oblivious to a fascinating piece of Earth history literally under their feet.
About 110 million years ago, the land that now sports one of NASA's premiere science centers was home to a four-footed tank of a dinosaur called a nodosaur, one of which left a calling card -- a deep footprint inside ancient mud.
678415main_footprint ANALYSIS: Do Intelligent Dinosaurs Really Rule Alien Worlds?
"Space scientists may walk along here, and they're walking exactly where this big, bungling heavy armored dinosaur walked," amateur dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford said in an article published Monday on a NASA website .
The imprint shows the right rear foot of a nodosaur -- a "low-slung, spiny leaf-eater -- apparently moving in haste," said Stanford, noting that the dinosaur's heel did not fully settle in the cretaceous mud.
ANALYSIS: Asteroid Family Not Guilty of Dinosaur Killing
The space agency isn't disclosing the exact location of the print, which is about the size of a dinner plate.
"The agency considers the footprint and its location sensitive, but unclassified," Goddard facilities manager Alan Binstock said in the NASA article.
NASA will consult with state officials and paleontologists to come up with a plan for documenting and preserving the print, he added.
Stanford, who is credited with discovering the nodosaur from a fossilized hatchling found near the University of Maryland in College Park, also found several smaller footprints -- three-toed, flesh-eating therapods -- at the Goddard site.
ANIMAL PLANET: Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs in North America
After confirming the tracks were authentic with Johns Hopkins University paleontologist David Weishampel, Stanford disclosed the find to NASA officials and a Washington Post reporter on Friday.

Stone Age Figurines Found Near Jerusalem


Stone_age_ram
Two Stone Age statuettes, one depicting a ram and the other a wild bovine, have emerged from the highway connecting Jerusalem with Tel Aviv.
Found at Tel Moza, a couple miles north of Jerusalem, during a dig ahead of the widening of Highway 1, the 5.9-inch-long figurines are estimated to date between 9,000 and 9,500 years ago.
The first figurine, shaped in the image of a ram, is made of limestone and features intricately carved horns.
PHOTOS: Prehistoric Child Art
"The sculpting is extraordinary and precisely depicts details of the animal's image; the head and the horns protrude in front of the body and their proportions are extremely accurate," Anna Eirikh and Hamoudi Khalaily, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said in a statement.
"The legs of the figurine were incised in order to distinguish them from the rest of the body," they added.
The second figurine, fashioned on hard smoothed dolomite, is an abstract design. According to the archaeologists, it appears to depict a large animal with prominent horns that separate the elongated body from the head.
"The horns emerge from the middle of the head sideward and resemble those of a wild bovine or buffalo," the archaeologists said.
Stone_age_bovine
Discovered near a round building whose foundation was made of fieldstone and mud brick, the statuettes might help shed light on religion and society during the New Stone Age, or Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period about 8,000 BC.
At that time humans began transitioning from nomadism, based on hunting and gathering, to sedentary life, based on farming and grazing.
One theory is that the statuettes were used as talismans.
NEWS: Stone Age Cave Painters Were Realists
"It is known that hunting was the major activity in this period. Presumably, the figurines served as good-luck statues for ensuring the success of the hunt," Khalaily said.
"They might have been the focus of a traditional ceremony the hunters performed before going out into the field to pursue their prey," he said.
According to Eirikh, an alternative theory links the figurines to the process of animal domestication.
Israeli archeologists have discovered an abundace of objects at Tel Moza, such as stone age tools, and objects associated with funerals and rituals.
"We can conclude from these artifacts that the site at Tel Moza was most likely the largest of its kind in the mountainous region around Jerusalem," the archaeologist said.

First Temple-Era Reservoir Found in Jerusalem

The 10th-century B.C. reservoir may have been used by pilgrims coming to the Temple Mount.

 

cistern

An ancient cistern found in Jerusalem.
Vladimir Naykhin. IAA

Archaeologists have found an ancient water reservoir in Jerusalem that may have been used by pilgrims coming to the Temple Mount, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced.
The IAA said the cistern could have held 66,000 gallons (250 cubic meters) of water; it likely dates back to the era of the First Temple, which, according to the Hebrew Bible, was constructed by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. and then destroyed 400 years later.
NEWS: Medieval Aqueduct Found in Jerusalem
Israeli archaeologists believe the reservoir served the general public in the ancient city, but say its location hints at a role in the religious life of Jerusalem.
"Presumably the large water reservoir, which is situated near the Temple Mount, was used for the everyday activities of the Temple Mount itself and also by the pilgrims who went up to the Temple and required water for bathing and drinking," Tvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority, said in a statement.
Excavation director Eli Shukron, with the IAA, said the reservoir also sheds new light on the extent of the public water system in Jerusalem hundreds of years ago.
"It is now absolutely clear that the Jerusalem's water consumption during the First Temple period was not solely based on the output of the Gihon Spring, but that it also relied on public reservoirs," Shukron said in a statement. The Gihon Spring was the main source of water for the city.
NEWS: New Find Revives 'Jesus Tomb' Controversy
The reservoir was exposed during excavations on a massive drainage channel dating to the Second Temple period, according to the IAA. When that channel was constructed, its builders had to remove or cut through existing rock-hewn structures along the route, such as this reservoir.
Archaeologists with the IAA said they were able to estimate the age of the cistern based on signatures in its plaster treatment and its similarities with other First Temple reservoirs at sites such as Tel Be'er Sheva, Tel Arad and Tel Bet Shemesh.
The group presented their findings Thursday (Sept. 6) at an annual conference on the City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem.

 

Medieval Shipwreck Found in Danube River


Wreck-zoom
Hungarian archaeologists have found what they believe may be an intact medieval shipwreck in the Danube river.
Partially buried in mud and gravel near the riverbank at Tahitótfalu, some 18 miles north of Budapest, the flat bottom river wreck has yet to be excavated.
A preliminary survey from the Argonauts Research Group in cooperation with the county museum of Szentendre, revealed that the ship is about 40 feet long and 10 feet wide. The archaeologists could distinguish oak floor-planks, floor-timbers, and L-shaped ribs. They also noticed that the junction piece of the bottom and the side wall of the wreck is carved from a single log.
PHOTOS: Recovering a Silver Treasure: Photos
"Only a few river ships of this kind have been found in Europe," Attila J. Tóth, associate of the National Office of Cultural Heritage, told Discovery News.
The ship most likely sank because of an accident.
"River navigation was dangerous. Downstream cargo ships floated using large rudder-oars, which made maneuvering very hard. Accidents happened very often," Tóth said.
The largest river of Central Europe, the Danube connected in the Middle Ages Hungary with the German Empire to the west and the Byzantine Empire to the south, serving as a waterway for intense commerce as well as a route for military campaigns.
Danube_pot The archaeologists hope to begin the first phase of the underwater ship excavation next year.
"The current and the low visibility makes research in the Danube extremely difficult. But the find looks promising: we suspect this is an intact wreck," he added.
Indeed, a medieval pot was found next to a floor timber, inside the wreck.
"We believe that the entire cargo could be preserved under the pebble-shoal," Tóth said.
Although many ships have sunk in the river, only a few wrecks have been retrieved from its waters so far.
ANALYSIS: Near-Intact Roman Ship Holds Jars of Food
Last year, the extreme dry winter exposed a 14th-century wooden wreck of a probable ship-mill at Dunaföldvár, about 58 miles south of Budapest.
"Watermills planted on ships were widely diffused on the rivers of Middle Danube Basin," Tóth said.
Most likely, the ship sank during a feudal conflict, as reported in a contemporary document.
In December 2011, another wreck was discovered near Ráckeve, about 30 miles south of Budapest. Possibly dating to the Middle Ages, the ship was pretty similar to the Dunaföldvár wreck.
"Unfortunately the finder destroyed the ship by cutting it into 5-foot-long pieces. He had planned to use the oak wood for heating his house. It was a heap of firewood, but we could detect the original construction from the shapes and other caracteristics of the plank," Tóth said.