An Ancient History Page with No Alien Nonsense

A network of subterranean rooms was discovered within a 16th-century house in Old Dongola, once the capital of the medieval Nubian Kingdom of Makuria (ca. A.D. 400–1400). Their unusual decoration of unorthodox 13th-century Christian paintings, including one of the Virgin Mary, is one of ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2023.

archaeology.org/issues/537-features/top10/11939-sudan-old-dongola-medieval-paintings

(Photo by Magdalena Skarżyńska/Polish Centrę of Mediterranean Archaeology/University of Warsaw)

“Jungle Realm of the Snake Queen" was Archaeology magazine’s 2nd most read article of the year. Read more about the roles of Maya queens of the Snake Dynasty, who, in addition to their roles as wives and mothers, also waged war and commissioned monuments of their achievements.

archaeology.org/issues/494-2301/features/11025-maya-snake-queens

(Adobe Stock)

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-09-20/ty-article/half-million-year-old-wooden-structure-found-in-zambia/0000018a-b1a5-d6d1-addb-f5afa0a90000

Half-million-year-old wooden structure found in Zambia ***

https://www.newsweek.com/archaeologists-find-ancient-native-american-calendar-colorado-border-1852956

Archaeologists find ancient Native American calendar on Colorado border Researchers have documented previously unknown artworks carved into a rock by a culture whose history dates back more than 3,000 years.

: The 11,000-year-old stone circles of modern-day Turkey’s Göbekli Tepe—the world’s earliest known monumental structures built by humans—may have paid tribute to the hunter-gatherers’ vanishing way of life.

archaeology.org/issues/422-2105/features/9591-turkey-gobekli-tepe-hunter-gatherers

(Vincent J. Musi)

>>>>>The sole surviving sample of Queen Cleopatra’s handwriting, found on an ancient papyrus, reveals a single Greek word, “ginesthoi” (Greek: γίνεσθοι), meaning “make it happen” or ” so be it”.

This remarkable document is a royal decree dated back to 33 BC. It granted tax exemption to Publius Canidius, a Roman officer closely associated with Mark Antony. According to the papyrus, Canidius was permitted to annually export ten thousand bags of wheat and import five thousand amphorae of wine without taxation. However, what captured imaginations was a Greek postscript, which could be translated as “make it so.” Believed to be Cleopatra’s handwriting, it hinted at her direct involvement.
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Queen Cleopatra's Sole Surviving Handwriting Is a Single Greek Word The sole surviving sample of Queen Cleopatra's handwriting, found on an ancient papyrus, reveals a single Greek word, "ginesthoi."

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/meteorite-that-crashed-to-earth-3500-years-ago-carved-into-arrowhead-by-bronze-age-hunters?fbclid=IwAR1x9wRvzfzliS9SYYkBOuCwXomyXQPKzGzv8ScpuRMna73aRDAe4CYunoo

Meteorite that crashed to Earth 3,500 years ago carved into arrowhead by Bronze Age hunters A Bronze Age arrowhead found in Switzerland was made using meteoric iron.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a glass workshop at Němčice, a Celtic settlement site dated to the second and third centuries B.C. in the northern Czech Republic, including pieces of glass bracelets and beads as well as amber.

archaeology.org/news/11607-230724-europe-glass-amber

(I. Čižmář/Čižmář and Čižmářová 2023, © Antiquity Publications Ltd.)

A 2,700-year-old leather saddle was uncovered in a woman’s grave at China’s Yanghai cemetery.

archaeology.org/news/11467-230526-china-yanghai-saddle

(Courtesy Patrick Wertmann)

3,800-year-old beads excavated beneath Iraq’s ziggurat of Assur in 1914 are made of amber from the Baltic or North Sea regions, which would have been very rare in southwest Asia at the time.

archaeology.org/news/11458-230523-iraq-amber-beads

(J. Lipták, Munich)

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In an interview with the Post, researchers from a joint US-Guatemalan archaeological study published in the Cambridge University Press in December said they had uncovered 417 cities dating back roughly 3,000 years, interconnected by 110 miles of "superhighways."

This discovery is making historians rethink what they know of ancient Mayan civilization. The discovery of a network of roads and cities, hydraulic systems, and agricultural infrastructure suggests that communities living in Central America were now more advanced than given credit for, the Post reports.

Per the paper, these findings reflect "socio-economic organization and political power."
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Archaeologists discover a lost world of 417 ancient Mayans cities buried in remote jungle, connected by miles of 'superhighways,' WaPo reports A team studying the ancient Mayan civilization has found they created cities connected by over superhighways, The Washington Post reported

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Archaeologists have discovered about 40 stunning rock carvings of ships, people, and animals that were etched into the granite cliffs of a Swedish island some 2,700 years ago. The Bronze Age carvings, which are known as petroglyphs, were found earlier this May in Bohuslän, a province in western Sweden that is famous for its abundant rock art, according to the public television broadcaster SVT.

The newly identified petroglyphs were spotted near the town of Kville by a team of researchers conducting fieldwork for the Foundation for Documentation of Bohuslän's Rock Carvings. The team erected a platform to uncover the images, which were hidden under a bed of moss on a steep outcrop. Today, this rock face is located in the middle of a grassy field, but it would have been on an island cliffside 2,700 years ago.

"What makes the rock carving completely unique is that it is located 3 meters above today's ground level on a steep rock surface which, during the Late Bronze Age, was located on a small island,” the Foundation said in a Facebook post announcing the find. “The rock carving must have been made from a boat when the sea level was approximately 12 meters above today's sea level."
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Archaeologists Discover Dozens of Mysterious Ancient Stone Carvings Hidden Under Moss The 2,700-year-old stone carvings in Sweden include a 13-foot image of a boat and elaborate scenes with an unclear meaning.

>>>>THE ZIGGURAT OF MONTE D’ACCODDI was a place of the gods, somewhere between chelu e mare, as singer Maria Carta might have sung.

That very word seemed somewhat outlandish—a ziggurat in Europe, in Sardinia of all places. Ziggurats were the ancient platform mounds and step pyramids that took shape in Mesopotamia in the fifth millennium BC like some scene out of the Tower of Babel. After driving down the back country road to reach the site, not quite seven miles from Sassari, passing farms on either side, I parked my car at a grassy clearing. At first glance, it looked like a hill; in fact, Monte d’Accoddi means a “mountain of stones.” >>>>

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This Mysterious Ziggurat Was an Ancient European Pilgrimage Site Sardinia's 'mountain of stones,' Monte d'Accoddi, is nearly 6,000 years old.

Those who have taken Koine or Attic Greek translation classes know the struggle:

New Insights on What Ancient Greek Sounded Like Reading like the lyrics to a popular song or poem from modern times, ancient Greek poems have prompted new insights into spoken language.

Loved this scene in the new trailer

https://gizmodo.com/archaeologists-unearth-a-fanciful-ancient-winery-near-r-1850349143

Archaeologists Unearth a Fanciful Ancient Winery Near Rome The winery’s layout and finishes suggest the wine-making was merely a spectacle for ancient Roman elites.

A 3,800-year-old relief of a skeletal anthropomorphic being at the archaeological site of Vichama (1800-1200 BCE) in Peru

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkg95v/a-total-amateur-may-have-just-rewritten-human-history-with-bombshell-discovery

A Total Amateur May Have Just Rewritten Human History With Bombshell Discovery Ben Bacon is "effectively a person off the street," but he and his academic co-authors think they've found the earliest writing in human history.

8000-year-old prehistoric Venus figurine made of terracotta named "Red hair goddess", excavated at Donja Branjevina archaeological site in Deronje village, Bačka region, Vojvodina province, northern Serbia.
It belongs to the Starčevo culture from the Neolithic period – the New Stone Age and was made around 6000 – 5500 years BC.
“Red-hair goddess“ depicts standing female figurine with oversized glutei and emphasized breasts, and it represents woman progenitor or great mother, female divine concept characteristic for early matriarchy societies. Prehistoric figurines depicting women, female divinity and motherhood are called “Venus figurines” in archaeology and art history, in reference to the Roman goddess of beauty Venus.
With height of 38 cm it is one of the largest prehistoric figurines ever found in Serbia.
Collection of National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade
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8000 godina stara figurina praistorijske Venere izrađena od pečene gline nazvana "Crvenokosa boginja", pronađena na arheološkom lokalitetu Donja Branjevina u selu Deronje u Bačkoj, Vojvodina, severna Srbija.
Pripada Starčevačkoj kulturi iz razdoblja neolita – mlađeg kamenog doba i potiče iz razdoblja 6000 – 5500 godina pre nove ere.
„Crvenokosa boginja“ je stojeća ženska figurina sa preuveličanim gluteima i istaknutim grudima, i predstavlja veliku majku, koncept ženskog božanstva karakterističan za rana matrijarhalna društva. Praistorijske fgurine koje predstavljaju žene, ženska božanstva i principe majčinstva se u arheologiji i istoriji umetnosti nazivaju „Venerama“, po uzoru na rimsku boginju lepote Veneru.
Sa visinom od 38 cm svrstava se među najveće praistorijske figurine pronađene u Srbiji.
Zbirka Narodnog muzeja u Beogradu

A 3300-year-old map of the Sumerian Enlil's city, Nippur, located modern Nuffar in Afak, Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq.

British Museum

Credit:

Evidence of early human presence in the Arctic found on an ancient Woolly Mammoth : Paleolithic records of humans in the Eurasian Arctic (above 66°N) are scarce, stretching back to 30,000 to 35,000 years ago at most. Pitulko et al. have found evidence of human occupation 45,000 years ago at 72°N, well within the Siberian Arctic. The evidence is in the form of a frozen mammoth carcass bearing many signs of weapon-inflicted injuries, both pre- and postmortem. The remains of a hunted wolf from a widely separate location of similar age indicate that humans may have spread widely across northern Siberia at least 10 millennia earlier than previously thought.

International Archaeology Day is tomorrow! Celebrate archaeology with the Archaeological Institute of America on October 15th and throughout the rest of the month. Check out and register for events here:

archaeological.org/programs/public/archaeologyday/

(Archaeological Institute of America)

A product of the Nazca culture, the Cantalloc Aqueducts ensured the city of Nazca’s water supply year-round, and allowed cotton, bean, potato and other farming even though the region of Peru where they are located is arid. The aqueducts were built approximately 1,500 years ago.

The Nazca culture flourished in Peru from approximately 100 BCE to 800 CE. They are also known for the Nazca lines, giant designs in the desert that sometimes run across the landscape and sometimes form pictures that can be seen from the air. The lines are designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

From 2020.

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Archaeologists from Norway’s University Museum of Bergen have unearthed the remains of an eighth-century “godhouse,” or temple dedicated to the gods of the Norse pantheon, in the village of Ose.

The researchers discovered the structure’s ruins while conducting excavations ahead of construction of a housing development. Based on the placement of postholes and other artifacts, they were able to determine how the godhouse would have looked in its prime.

As Sissel Beate Brunstad and Olaug Bjørneset report for Norwegian broadcaster NRK, the building’s layout is almost identical to late Iron Age godhouses found at Uppåkra in southern Sweden and Tissø in Denmark. But this is the first temple of its kind identified in Norway.

“We have discovered the most perfectly shaped godhouse of all the finds so far—I know of no other Scandinavian buildings in which the house construction is as clear as it is here,” Bergen University Museum architect Søren Diinhoff, who helped lead the excavation, tells Syfy Wire’s Elizabeth Rayne. “I think our building is central to document and verify this very special architecture.”
Per a statement, the temple was about 45 feet long and 23 to 26 feet wide. It stood up to 40 feet tall.
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Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/norse-godhouse-site-found-norway-180976075/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=socialmedia&fbclid=IwAR1us2pvFZaeUu8pKOcEhdfrT_tOsCDBmZs2rd1K-7sXlHNuzy2XRdxp15c

Ruins of Eighth-Century Pagan Temple Found in Norway The structure—built to honor Norse gods like Thor and Odin—is the first of its kind discovered in the country

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/easter-island-moai-damage-volcano-intl-hnk/index.html

Sacred Easter Island statues suffer 'irreparable damage' after volcano fire Easter Island's towering stone heads and other archaeological elements have been charred by a fire, according to local Indigenous and Chilean authorities.

>>>>The water in the lake is drained every summer in order to produce power. Hobby-archaeologist Marstein immediately realised that the short wooden poles he saw sticking up in the low water formed a pattern.

“I saw that they were placed in a particular system,” Marstein says to the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK (link in Norwegian).

The system of wooden poles were in fact Stone Age fish traps, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo writes in a press release (link in Norwegian).

One of the poles has recently been established to be 7,000 years old, meaning it is dated to 5,000 years BC. This is early Stone Age in a Norwegian context.

“The find is unique evidence of an ancient fishing tradition in the mountains!” the Museum writes in the press release.
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7,000 year old fish traps discovered in the Norwegian mountains Stone Age folks in the Norwegian mountains didn’t just hunt reindeer. A unique find from this summer reveals that they had also developed extensive fish traps in the lakes.