Giant statue of Amenhotep III rediscovered in Luxor

Archaeologists excavating Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple in Luxor have uncovered a colossal statue of the pharaoh. It’s 42 feet tall (13 meters) and consists of seven enormous blocks of quartzite. The head hasn’t been found yet, but they’re looking for it, so this giant may turn out to be even more of a giant than he is now. As it is, this 3,400-year-old statue is the largest of its kind ever found in North Africa.

The statue is apparently one of a pair that once flanked the northern entrance to the temple. They are thought to have been brought down by an earthquake in 27 B.C. which severely damaged the temple. The matching statue has not been found yet, but this isn’t actually the first time these colossi have come to light. The pair was first discovered in 1928, only to be reburied at the site under sand for their own protection. The team hopes to find the second colossus in the next digging season.

Meanwhile, the blocks are being cleaned and restored in the hope that they can be reassembled at their original location.

Archaeologist Abdel Ghaffar Wagdi, supervisor of the 7-month excavation, announced that two other statues have also been found. They’re less dramatic in scale, however. One is an intact black granite statue of the lion-headed goddess of healing, Sekhmet. She is six feet tall. The other is a statue of the baboon god Thoth.

There have been an abundance of Sekhmet statues found at Amenhotep III’s temple, leading some archaeologists to conclude that the pharaoh was ill towards the end of his life, possibly from arthritis, and made regular offerings to Sekhmet for her protection.

Amenhotep III was the seventh pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, reigning from 1391 B.C. to 1353 B.C. He was the father of Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, and the grandfather of King Tutankhamun.

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Bones of leper warrior found in Lombard cemetery

Archaeological excavations of the early medieval necropolis in Morrione, in the central Italian region of Molise, have uncovered the bones of a warrior with leprosy. He was approximately 50 years old, and appears to have died from one sword blow to the head. Since lepers were treated like, well, lepers (i.e., societal outcasts separated in life and death from the “clean” population), it’s a surprising discovery to find someone with Hansen’s disease who lived, fought, died and was buried with his comrades.

The skeleton of a female between 40 and 46 years old was also found in the necropolis. There is very little osteological data about leprosy in the archaeological record of Italy. The two skeletons discovered might be able to provide a great deal of new information about the pathological and sociological history of the disease in Italy.

The cemetery was in use between the sixth and eighth centuries. There was no permanent settlement at that time, so the burial ground had to have been used by the Lombards, a Germanic people who invaded Italy in 568 along with their allies the Avars, a Eurasian confederation of nomadic warriors, who had a military outpost in the area.

[The warrior's] bones show the telltale wasting and mutilation of leprosy, now known as Hansen’s disease. In ancient times, leprosy sufferers were often banished from society. Apparently the Lombards and Avars took a more tolerant approach, Rubini said, because this man, who died around age 50, was buried in the cemetery along with the other dead. [...]

“The Avar society was very inflexible militarily, and in particular situations all are called to contribute to the cause of survival, healthy and sick,” [Foggia University anthropologist Mauro Rubini] said. “Probably this individual was really a leper warrior who died in combat to defend his people against the Byzantinian soldiers.”

Horse and rider buried togetherSo far 234 graves have been excavated. We can learn a great deal more we don’t know about Lombard and Avar cultures from their buried dead. There is evidence of successful battlefield surgery, for example. One skull has a 2-inch hole in it, probably made by a Byzantine mace, whose edges were cleaned and abraded until smooth. Regrowth of bone indicates that the surgery was successful. Another skull with a wedge-shaped dent, possibly made by a Byzantine battle-axe, also shows signs that the recipient of the blow survived it and lived for some time after.

Many of the warriors were found buried with their horses, a common practice among nomadic Asian peoples that must have continued to be practiced by the Avars in Italy.

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Giant Skeleton Offers Proof Of Bigfoot After All

After recently stating that I do not believe that ‘Bigfoot‘ exists, because there is no physical evidence to support such a claim, I may now have to eat my words after receiving a couple of intriguing emails.

A recent discovery in the Indian desert may have changed everything.An archaeological dig in northern India, in what is known as the ‘Empty Quarter’ has unearthed a giant skeleton.

Tablets discovered with the body suggest that the giant may have been created by the god Brahma, meaning the body could be of mythological character Ghatotkacha, a powerful warrior with magical abilities.

Typically, Ghatotkacha is not portrayed as a giant in legends, though linking his abilities with a giant stature could be seen as a logical association.

Recent exploration activity in the northern region of India uncovered a skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size.

This region of the Indian desert is called the Empty Quarter.

The exploration team also found tablets with inscriptions that stated that our Gods of Indian mythological yore, Brahma, had created people of phenomenal size the like of which He has not created since.

They were very tall, big, and very powerful, such that they could put their arms around a tree trunk and uproot it.

They were created to bring order among us since we were always fighting with each other.

One of he sons of Bhima of the Pandava brothers is also thought of to have been carrying these genes.

Later these people, who were given all the power turned against all our Gods and transgressed beyond all boundaries set.

As a result they were destroyed by God Shiva.

The Geo Exploration team believes these to be the remains of those people.

Govt of India has secured the whole area and no one is, allowed to enter except the NatGeo personnel.

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Summer archaeological digs online

Students from UCLA will be blogging about their experiences this summer on digs in fourteen locations in seven different countries: Albania, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and the U.S.

Undergraduates will blog from — among other places — the world’s richest collection of rock art, a mass burial site for people mentioned in the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and a tropical village possibly spotted by Christopher Columbus’ crew on his fourth voyage to the Americas. [...]

The blogs are designed to showcase UCLA’s new field studies program, which this summer is taking 140 undergraduates to 13 different sites in 11 countries. Typically, archaeological digs are run with the help of professionals and graduate students. But participants in UCLA’s new field program are much less experienced. In fact, they aren’t necessarily archaeology or even anthropology majors — just students intrigued by archaeological fieldwork.

Lucky, lucky, lucky bastards. So lucky I can hardly stand it. Good thing they’ll be blogging about the digs so I can live vicariously through them.

The Albanian dig is my favorite. I mean, you can’t beat this with 20 sticks.No less exciting will be John Papadopoulos’ dig in southwestern Albania, near the Adriatic coast. In 2004, the UCLA classics professor and his wife, Sarah Morris, also a UCLA classics professor, discovered the graves of 150 people they now believe to be Illyrians, neighbors of the ancient Greeks who were mentioned not only by Aristotle but also by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. By day, the students will learn to use GPS mapping technology and methods for classifying and conserving all kinds of artifacts, including delicate bronze crowns discovered in the graves of adolescent girls. At night, they will sleep among the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Apollonia, where the Roman Emperor Augustus attended a school of philosophy and his great uncle Julius Caesar was once stranded on the way to a key battle.

You can read a succulent description of a past student’s experience in this article in UCLA magazine. It sounds like an amazing program for anyone. Even graduate students don’t get this lucky often.

“In most field schools, students aren’t being treated well,” Boytner said. “They’re being treated as inexpensive labor, and there isn’t really any training.” Students leave those digs discouraged, feeling used, without learning proper techniques or even much about the site. That means fewer students became archaeologists — and even fewer become donors, he said.

Boytner, co-director of the Chile dig, used the Tarapaca Valley project as a pilot program. A packed schedule of field work and classes gives students a crash-course in the historical significance of the dig site, how and why to use different archaeological techniques, and instruction on lab work and complex field equipment. Working side by side with local archaeologists also exposes students to regional customs, like the pago. [A Chilean custom of asking the earth's permission before digging by making an offering of wine.


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Excavating Occaneechi Town: An archaeology primer

Republished with permission from the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Archaeology Primer uses photographs of the archaeology excavations at Occaneechi Town to introduce fundamental concepts of archaeology. The primer provides an introduction to the methods of archaeology and to some common types of artifacts, and prepares students to participate in an electronic archaeological dig.

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MULBERRY ROW EMERGES

Research Fellow Martha Hill conducted a two-year long project aimed at understanding life on Mulberry Row, the 1,000-foot road that was the center of plantation activity during Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime. The examination of written and archaeological findings yielded a wealth of information, including an annotated bibliography recording references to Mulberry Row and an analysis of archaeological excavations.

The study of archaeological artifacts shed light on the structure and contents of the dwellings for the enslaved workers. Hill recognized several hardened chunks of clay as pieces of chinking from an early log building, the residence of several enslaved families. Not only did these remnants show that the house was covered with clapboards, but they also bore the marks of the hand of the man who pressed the damp clay between the logs. While we don’t know who left those fingerprints, they are a clear reminder of the work undertaken and completed by enslaved laborers.

By bringing together both the written and archaeological record this project has brought us much closer to learning who may have lived in particular buildings. We now know the probable dwelling of enslaved woodworker John Hemings and his wife Priscilla, and have identified some of their possessions, including a mirror, a piece of furniture with a lockable drawer, and a Bible. For additional information visit the Monticello Department of Archaeology web site.

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Knowledge of archaeology

Mihriban Ozbarasan, left, is a professor at Istanbul University who leads a group working at the Catalhoyuk site. Ian Hodder, second from left, is director of Stanford's Archaeology Program.

Archaeologists at Stanford used to be all over the place. In trailers. In basements. In their home departments. But never, or hardly ever, near their archaeological colleagues.

But it's a new and exciting era at Stanford. Since 2005, a state-of-the-art Archaeology Center just off

the Main Quad has become a home for faculty, students and visitors, a place for meetings and lab work and artifact storage and the sort of casual conversation that can spark projects that, before, might never have seen the light of day.

First approved in early 2001 and recently renewed for another five years, the interdisciplinary undergraduate Archaeology Program has participating faculty from the departments of Anthropological Sciences, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Classics, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Geophysics, Political Science, History, and Art and Art History. Teaming up, they are training a new generation of scholars and practitioners.

And starting this fall, a workshop at the Humanities Center provides a new intellectual forum on archaeology.

It was the arrival of historian and classicist Ian Morris in 1995 that got this collaborative process going, most people say. There followed a series of senior appointments—including archaeologists Ian Hodder and Lynn Meskell—and junior appointments in a range of departments. Suddenly, there were few better places to learn and practice archaeology than at Stanford. The university's mix of new and old, theory and practice, and politics and tradition is unique, scholars say, and absolutely essential for ensuring that archaeology lives up to its literally ground-breaking potential as a field that cuts across and challenges a host of disciplines.

"All these people all working together is very inspiring," said Josh Ober, a new faculty member with a joint appointment in political science and classics. He is the first holder of the Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Professorship and just arrived here from Princeton. "It's a world that tends to be quite fragmented. The Old World doesn't talk to the New World; dirt doesn't talk to theory. Clearly, at Stanford there's a real eagerness to do things in a way that brings together strengths from various traditions."

Hodder, the Dunlevie Family Professor and director of the Archaeology Center, made it clear that this scholarly convergence on the center does not mean he is interested in creating a new department. Archaeology departments, in fact, are a rare breed in the United States.

"The key issue is flexibility," he said. "We need a loose structure, a network, openness. We don't need another straitjacket. Disciplines go back and forth with the times, and we must allow them to move and to change, to incorporate new theories and new technologies."

Hodder spoke just after returning from a summer in Turkey, where he directs the dig at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (http://www.catalhoyuk.com/). "The great strength of Stanford is the availability of international travel in the summer," he said last summer, reflecting on his upcoming duties as director.

"I feel very strongly there's an extreme importance for Stanford students to go abroad. When you're at the site, you sit there. You don't just pass through; you have to interact with the local community. I can see how the students change."

Stanford faculty have ongoing projects on every continent, and every one has the potential to slice through methodological, theoretical, social and moral concerns. "Archaeology tends to be ghettoized in one place or another," Hodder said. Usually that means an anthropology department.

"In the United States, no one has successfully bridged the humanities, the natural sciences and the social sciences," he said. "We're unable to bring people together, integrate them, build something new. But at Stanford, we have managed to take a diverse range of sciences and pull them together in the center, which is unique."

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18th century archaeology

Splendour or Convenience?

The Somerset House that we see today stands on the site of an earlier Tudor palace that was demolished in 1775.

The demise of the old Somerset House coincided with a move to house many of the government's offices and the principal learned societies under one roof, and led to the site being chosen for a new building to solve this pressing problem.

This approach was a radical departure from the established practice of using separate buildings for different departments of state and was seen as a means to promote greater efficiency among the government bureaucracies.

Sir William Chambers, one of the leading architects of the day and Comptroller in the Office of Works, might have expected to be first choice for the Somerset House commission when it was awarded in 1774.

Instead, he was overlooked in favour of William Robinson, Secretary of the Board of Works, but a man who had recent experience of designing major government buildings.
There was much argument in Parliament as to whether the designs for the new building should favour splendour or economy.

Joseph Baretti, a close friend of Chambers, described Robinson's initial plans as being in a plain manner, "rather with a view to convenience than ornament". However, following a parliamentary debate, Robinson was instructed to revise his concept and produce, "an ornament to the Metropolis and a monument of the taste and elegance of His Majesty's Reign".

Meanwhile, Chambers expressed his displeasure at the choice of architect for such a prestigious project when he wrote that it was, "strange that such an undertaking should be trusted to a Clerk in our office... while the King has six architects in his service ready and able to obey his commands".
The matter of Robinson's ability to produce an appropriate design was unexpectedly resolved by his sudden death in 1775, and the appointment of Chambers as his replacement.

The 20th Century

As the needs of the Inland Revenue continued to grow at the end of the 19th century, it expanded into the East Wing releasing space in the South Wing for the Principal Probate Registry. The need for increased storage and public access to the Registry resulted in alterations to the cellar, basement and ground floors of the South Wing during the 1920s, and a substantial reconstruction of the Seamen's Waiting Hall.

In the 1940s, the Inland Revenue was evacuated and the Ministry of Supply occupied Somerset House for the duration of the War. Subsequent bomb damage to the Nelson Staircase, Navy Boardroom and several bays to its east required extensive reconstruction which was carried out under Richardson & Houfe between 1950 and 1952.

After the War, the Inland Revenue, the Principal Probate Registry and the General Register Office occupied the building. During this time, mezzanine storeys were introduced to many of the offices to increase their floor area, while, in the 1970s, original joinery was removed to enable fire precaution works and the upgrading of mechanical services under the direction of the Frizzell Partnership.

In spite of these changes much of the space in Somerset House no longer proved ideal for its users and the North Wing was vacated by the Registrar General in 1970. Having remained empty for some 20 years, this part of the building originally designed by Chambers for "useful learning and polite arts" was occupied by the Courtauld Institute and its galleries. The adaptation was carried out by Green Lloyd and Adams and the reallocation of the building to the arts was seen as a major heritage gain.

Following the vacation of the South Wing and Embankment Building by government departments in the last few years, a comprehensive restoration programme has seen galleries and other cultural spaces introduced here. The Embankment Terrace has been reopened and Chambers' great Courtyard has been transformed from a hidden car park into one of the most vibrant public spaces in the capital.

These changes have been overseen by architects Inskip and Jenkins, under the direction of the Somerset House Trust and with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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Mexico Returns an Invaluable Archaeological Piece to the Government of Egypt

An invaluable archaeological piece from Aswan, Egypt, from the Medium Kingdom period (2055-1650 BC), was returned by the Government of Mexico to the Arab nation in a ceremony at the National Museum of Anthropology, where it was safeguarded and examined: after 4 years of research, authenticity and its illegal extraction from the country were confirmed.

The piece was detected in 2006 during an inspection of authorities from the Central Administration of Mexican Customs; when checking packages from abroad, they found an Egyptian effigy which authenticity was confirmed later by specialized experts from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and from the Egyptian Government.

According to analyses that the piece underwent, the bas-relief of the profile of a human head was carved on sandstone from the Aswan region. It is 15.6 centimeters tall and 15 wide; a fragment that corresponds to the hair was also conserved.
This delivery was possible thanks to the work of authorities from both countries, conducted after the petition of International Legal Assistance asked by Egyptian authorities to the Office of the Attorney General in Mexico (PGR).

The delivery at the National Museum of Anthropology was presided by the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Ibrahim Khairat; the PGR coordinator of International Affairs, Guillermo Valls Esponda; Dra. Diana Magaloni, director of the museum, and Francisco Vidargas, INAH World Heritage sub director.

Francisco Vidargas emphasized the joint work of cultural and legal authorities of Mexico and Egypt to recover the piece, as well as of the state parties of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

Vidargas declared that one of the mandates of the INAH is to collaborate with nations that signed the Convention to rescue cultural goods illegally subtracted from their original countries.

The Coordinator of International Affairs and Attaches of the PGR, Guillermo Valls, mentioned that actions like this reflect the importance given by Mexico to the recovery of cultural goods part of the heritage of nations; he remarked that the recovery of the effigy is a sample of the high level of legal cooperation between both countries and the respect of Mexico to heritage of the countries of the world.

Guillermo Valls emphasized the work of the National Museum of Anthropology, in charge of safeguarding the piece since 2007, while investigations to verify its authenticity took place.

The Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Mexico, Ibrahim Khairat, thanked the cooperation of Mexican authorities and the work of INAH to recover and conserve the piece, which he received from Dra. Magaloni.

After showing the piece to the assistants, the director of the National Museum of Anthropology (MNA) expressed it was an honor to safeguard the invaluable piece since 2007, in the adequate conditions of temperature and humidity.

These actions prove the compromise of the Government of Mexico in fighting illegal traffic of cultural goods and protecting cultural and historical heritage of any nation.

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A 400,000-year-old stone object unearthed in Morocco could be the world's oldest attempt at sculpture.

That is the claim of a prehistoric art specialist who says the ancient rock bears clear signs of modification by humans.

The object, which is around six centimetres in length, is shaped like a human figure, with grooves that suggest a neck, arms and legs. On its surface are flakes of a red substance that could be remnants of paint.

The object was found 15 metres below the eroded surface of a terrace on the north bank of the River Draa near the town of Tan-Tan. It was reportedly lying just a few centimetres away from stone handaxes in ground layers dating to the Middle Acheulian period, which lasted from 500,000 to 300,000 years ago.

Cultural controversy


The find is likely to further fuel a vociferous debate over the timing of humanity's discovery of symbolism. Hominids such as Homo heidelbergensis and Homo erectus, that were alive during the Acheulian period, are not thought to have been capable of the symbolic thought needed to create art.

Writing in the journal Current Anthropology, Robert Bednarik, president of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (IFRAO), suggests that the overall shape of the Tan-Tan object was fashioned by natural processes.

But he argues that conspicuous grooves on the surface of the stone, which appear to emphasise its humanlike appearance, are partially man-made. Mr Bednarik claims that some of these grooves were made by repeated battering with a stone tool to connect up natural depressions in the rock.

"What we've got is a piece of stone that is largely naturally shaped.

"It has some modifications, but they are more than modifications," Mr Bednarik told BBC News Online.

Mr Bednarik tried to replicate the markings on a similar piece of rock by hitting a stone flake with a "hammerstone" in the manner of a punch. He then compared the microscopic structure of the fractures with those of the Tan-Tan object.

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World’s Oldest Erotic Sculpture Found

Archaeologists unveiled a 35,000-year-old ivory sculpture of a rather buxom woman that was discovered in a German cave. The sculpture depicts a woman with large breasts, curvy thighs, and a full belly, but she has no feet or head.


The archaeologists believe it to be the oldest known carving of the human form. The sculpture suggests that ancient humans, who settled in Europe around 40,000 years ago, were smart enough create symbolic representations of themselves, much they way modern humans do, said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, who along with a team discovered the figure in September. Archaeologists don’t know for sure about the purpose of the figure, but they have some ideas….

“It’s very sexually charged,” said Conard. Archaeologist Paul Mellars, of the University of Cambridge, agreed with Conard. “These people were obsessed with sex,” said Mellars. However, Jill Cook, a curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic material at the British Museum in London, said the carving could be a symbol of fertility portraying the act of giving birth. Whatever the case may be, if this is the way ancient humans viewed the female form, it’s possible this says a lot about what they considered, well, sexy. How we interpret the 2.4-inch-tall figure says as much about us as it does the people 40,000 years ago, doesn’t it? At least our erotica has become more sophisticated with this discovery.

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Archaeologists searching for 'Mona Lisa' skull

A team of researchers in Italy has begun looking for the remains of the woman long thought to be the model for Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting, the Mona Lisa.

They hope to find the skull of the woman, Lisa Gheradini, buried in the Saint Ursula convent in Florence by using a ground-penetrating radar device.

The archaeologists' ultimate aim is to find enough skull fragments to be able to reconstruct her face, enabling a comparison to be made with the Mona Lisa.

The identity of the subject of the Mona Lisa has remained one of the greatest mysteries of the art world for nearly five centuries.

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Fieldwork Marcajirca 2010

Inside a chulpa before we enter it

Drawing before the actual recovery of bones from the cave or chulpa

Nicole doing inventory

Briana drawing bones

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Researchers blog about Kenyan archaeological excavation

For the first time ever, work by researchers with Penn Museum’s archaeological excavation at the Laikipia Archaeological Project in north-central Kenya is being chronicled in a blog, as well as in photos and film.

Kathleen Ryan, a consulting scholar in the African Section at the Museum, is leading the group of researchers, which includes several Kenyan archaeologists. The archaeology excavation is focused on a period 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, Ryan says.

“Our interest is in the transition from the Later Stone Age, when the area was occupied by hunters and gatherers through the Pastoral Neolithic, when pastoralists herding cattle, sheep, and goats entered the area from the north,” she explains.

The researchers will try to uncover how people and animals co-existed, Ryan says. “Did they interact peaceably? Did they share food resources such as wildlife or domestic livestock, wild plants, honey. Was either group drinking milk? Were the incoming pastoralists already lactose tolerant?”

Amy Ellsworth, Penn Museum's digital media developer, will blog throughout the trip, which will last until May 13, and film what the researchers uncover. Jennifer Chiappardi will document the expedition in photos.

During the expedition, the team will also travel south to Maasailand where Ryan has been engaged in ethnobotanical research and education since 1993. In an effort to preserve local knowledge and pass it on to future generations, she organized two field schools in 1999 and 2000. Ryan will also work with local Maasai elders in describing traditional medicinal uses of various plants for both humans and animals.

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Archaeological Excavations in Egypt

Students of the IE University Degree in Architecture have the opportunity to undertake an extensive range of activities designed to round-off their education. These activities often involve work in the field, and include visits to different centres, factories and building sites, where students can observe architecture in action, and broaden and apply the knowledge acquired in the classroom.

Perhaps the most interesting ongoing field project is IE University’s participation in the archaeological excavation currently taking place in Egypt. Work is being done on the Monthemhat burial site in el-Assasif, Luxor, under the supervision of Dr. Farouk Gomaà and the coordination of Professor Emilio Illarregui, of IE University.

IE University archeologists and researchers are participating in excavation projects in the tomb of one of Egypt’s largest burial sites west of Thebes, that of the fourth prophet of Amon and governor of High Egypt, Monthemhat (670-648 B.C.).

Headed by Dr. Farouk Gomaà, IE University, SEK (through its universities in Chile and Ecuador), the University of Tübingen (Germany) and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, are all involved in the mission.

Professor Emilio Illarregui of IE University is heading archaeological work in the field, coordinating members of the IE team and fieldwork. The scientific team of 2008-2009 comprises a total of 35 people of different nationalities, and a group of students on scholarships from other international institutions.

With 57 burial chambers and two courtyards, the tomb of Monthemhat is an impressive burial site that has not yet been subject to deep investigation, or excavated in full. It is situated in a part of the Thebes necropolis known as el-Assasif, close to the famous temple of Queen Hatshepsut en Deir el-Bahari. The Hispano-Egyptian- German mission is an ambitious long-term project that will play an essential role gaining insight into a crucial period of history, spanning from the 25th dynasty to the end of the Coptic period.

Monthemhat lived in the 7th century B.C. and was from an important family of Thebes. He served the Kushite Pharaoh Taharqa (690-664 B.C.) of the 25th dynasty, and bore witness to the sacking of Thebes by King Asurbanipal’s Assyrian troops and the Persians. Moreover there is evidence of Ptolemaic and Roman presence in the tomb. Monthemhat was such a key figure that the Mesopotamians called him "King of Thebes". He also played a role in the unification of Egypt under the Pharaoh Psametic I.

The tomb of Monthemhat is full of chambers and passages and is considered an outstanding archaeological challenge. The 2008 campaign is centred on the continuity of documentation, restoration and excavation work, both inside the chambers and above ground, on and within the walls of the burial site.

The tomb has two adobe gateways built on the east and north sides, and a 117 meter-long perimeter wall, also built using adobe. There is a ramp of some 70m that leads from the gateway to the entrance of the tomb. The luxury of the tomb and the quality of the materials are comparable to the great tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Work to date has been focused on the restoration of one of the central chambers and on flights of steps, as well as gathering and cataloging numerous reliefs, inscriptions and biographical data from the Book of the Dead and other epigraphical texts.

The projects are being funded by private sponsors, IE University, SEK, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. and the University of Tübingen (Germany). They are the result of an agreement signed with the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, the place of work of Dr. Farouk Gomaà, the project and excavation director.

The agreement is in line with IE University’s commitment to international outreach. It also provides IE students and faculty in fields as diverse as architecture, art, or biology, the opportunity to do research in this key burial site, which is expected to yield valuable scientific results that will throw light on this period of ancient Egyptian history.

The IE University researchers bring their experience obtained in other archaeological digs and archaeology excavations to the Egyptian project. These include the Roman foundations in Tiermes (Soria), Herrera de Pisuerga (Palencia), and Cauca (Coca, Segovia), coupled with other archaeological projects in Europe and Latin America.

In the course of the campaign, the participating student and faculty work teams worked to achieve two objectives:

a.) To analyze the physical and structural state of the burial complex, in order to draft a report that included recommendations for actions designed to preserve the stability of the site. Given that there was serious concern about the stability of some of the chambers, the main emphasis was on those in the depths of the site.
b.) To enable architecture students to prepare a plan of the site.

The next campaign will begin between 5 January and 5 March 2009. Work will be centred on the archaeology excavation of the north and south sides of the site walls, along with the continued excavation of the large upper temple structures, restoration and geo-radar prospection of inner chambers in search of new discoveries. There also are plans to include a 3D scan of the site in collaboration with a Finnish University.

Dr. Baixerias and his team from the national Museum of Catalonia will be undertaking some interesting genetic studies of some 70 mummies from the burial site. In 2009 work will start on the restoration of Chamber 27 and other areas inside the tomb, and two articles on the project will be published.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

Roman tomb found under Naples toxic waste dump

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Roman mausoleum under an illegal toxic waste dump near Naples.

The sprawling 2nd-century AD tomb, complete with stucco work and decorations, was found under nearly 60 tonnes of refuse illicitly piled up in 17th-century ruins at Pozzuoli, site of the ancient Roman seaside town of Puteolanum.

Police with diggers cleared away the top level of garbage and unearthed an underground tunnel leading into the mausoleum which archaeologists described as "of extraordinary interest".

The owner of the site and the man who leased it from him are being investigated for crimes against the environment and Italy's cultural heritage, the news agency Ansa reported yesterday.

"Once again we see an illegal and uncivil act of huge proportions from the point of view of the environment and our cultural history," said Michele Buonomo, president of the Legambiente environmental pressure group. "The operation is testimony to the neglect and abandonment of our patrimony." In recent years unsightly garbage has even appeared around the world-famous site of Pompei. Pozzuoli is a pretty fishing port whose Latin name meant "malodorous" because of the presence of sulphur vapours.

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Trove of 4,000-year-old remains being unearthed in Uttar Pradesh

A team of archaeologists is trying to unravel the pages of history in a small village in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh as remains from the New Stone Age are being regularly excavated.

"During excavation work being carried out in Puccakot village, rare remains of Neolithic age upto Gupta period have been recovered," professor RS Dubey, heading the excavation work being carried out by archaeological department of the Banaras Hindu University, told PTI over phone.

"These artefacts and remains could prove very important for detailed study of the civilisation and culture during this period," he said.

Professor Dubey said the artefacts recovered during the excavation which began in February could be as much as 4,000-years-old and point towards highly developed culture in the area between the Neolithic age and Gupta period.

The remains recovered indicate that the area was developed from commercial and trade points of view, he said, adding that they present a chain of civilisations during different periods.

"This is not a common phenomenon and it seems that once people with an advanced lifestyle used to inhabit this area," Prof Dubey said.

The excavated artefacts include earthen utensils, weapons made from bones, terocotta toys, figures of parrots and coins of different periods ranging from King Ashoka's rein to the Gupta period.

Nearly two dozen sealings from Ahoska's period to the Gupta period with inscriptions bearing names of different people in Brahmi language have also been recovered from the excavation site.

"A fort made of bricks has been found at the excavation site. This could be the reason this area was named Puccakot," professor Dubey said.

He said from carvings on the objects excavated and other indications, it appears that the place was originally called Shrenipur.

The inscriptions found at the archaeology excavation sites are being studied and scientific analysis of other remains, including metallic examination of coins, will be carried out, he said, adding that scientific analysis, which include carbon dating and expert study of flora and fauna, would help in getting more details of the site.

"It will tell what were the major crops, what the lifestyle actually was and other intricate details. This could also lead to revelation of new facts relating to the then civilisation," he said.

"The excavation, which started on February 28, is likely to be wrapped up by mid May, but after examination of the remains, if required, it may be resumed," professor Dubey said.

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New fragments of a 32,000-year-old figurine found

In 1939 archaeologists discovered fragments that may be parts of one of the world's oldest sculptures, a lion-faced figurine estimated at 32,000 years old, from a cave in southern Germany. The ivory figure, along with a tiny figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, marks the foundation of human artistry, even if its significance wasn't recognized until 30 years after the discovery.
Both figurines were created by a Stone Age European culture that historians call Aurignacian. The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia, that lasted broadly within the period from ca. 47,000 and 41,000 years ago in terms of the most recent calibration of the radiocarbon timescale. The Aurignacians appear to have been the first modern humans, with handicrafts, social customs and beliefs, and the culture name comes from the first site to be studied, at Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France.
The Lion-Man sculpture, gradually re-assembled in workshops over decades after the discovery, is a kind of reverse sphinx: a human body, standing erect, but with the head of a now extinct European cave lion. The head is finely cut, but there is not enough detail left in the body to judge whether this chimera was meant to be male or female.
Claus-Joachim Kind, the chief archaeologist at the palaeolithic site near the city of Ulm, said the figure, was probably used by a shamanistic religion. "But we are walking on thin ice with any interpretation," he warned. The fact that the figure was found without any tools close to it in the sediment does suggest that the site, the Stadel Cave, had a religious significance for its owners at the time. Several flutes found in the same sediment show that the Aurignacians also made music.
Over the past two years, German archaeologists have carefully excavated more of the sediment near the spot where the Lion-Man showed up. Thousands of bone fragments and some ivory pieces were found. Some of them matched the Lion-Man perfectly, a delighted Kind reported. Some of the figure's missing right side and parts of the back have already been restored as a result. "It needs a huge amount of patience," said Kind. "It's like doing a jigsaw puzzle in 3D." The work is continuing with the help of computer tomograph images of the pieces and simulation software. By next year, the Lion-Man may be complete.
The restorers have also concluded that Lion-Man was somewhat taller than the 30 centimetres of him that currently exist. He was carved from one tusk, with the artist forming the legs from two sides of tusk's hollow root. The archaeologists assume that the Lion-Man is several thousand of years younger than the Venus, the Aurignacian female figure with an enormous bosom and hips which was found in a nearby cave, Hohle Fels, in 2008.
The different caves are closed to the public and provincial authorities are considering applying to have them declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "We assume they still contain a large quantity of culturally important and unique artefacts," Kind said.

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Summer 2011 Archaeological Field Schools at OHS

In addition to its world-class archaeology, natural history and history collections, the Ohio Historical Society is steward to a statewide system of prestigious historic and prehistoric sites - second only to the National Park Service in type and variety of locations. Among the more notable of OHS properties are Fort Ancient in Warren County and the Johnston Farm and Indian Agency, formerly known as the Piqua Historical Area, in Miami County.

This summer significant archaeological research will be undertaken at both places to better understand the sites' purpose and function and/or events that occurred there in the past. Field work is particularly labor intensive and it is often the case that it is preformed during the summer season by college and university students, under their instructor's direction. Many hands make the work go faster. Summer schools offer both a foundation in the discipline of archaeology for the students and a chance for the Ohio Historical Society to learn more about their holdings.

Fort Ancient Field School Uncovers Ancient History

Fort Ancient in Warren County is a hilltop enclosure consisting of nearly 3.5 miles of earthen walls that range from 4 to 23 feet in height. They encircle a high bluff above the Little Miami River near Oregonia. The earthwork walls are broken by more than 80 irregularly spaced gaps or "gateways," the purpose of which is not particularly well understood. Fort Ancient was constructed approximately 2,000 years ago by the Hopewell culture.

In 2004, OHS received a Save America's Treasures grant to do erosion control and restoration at various locations throughout the site. Preliminary to actual construction, affected areas were surveyed with geophysical instruments designed to see what might be located below the surface in a given area without actually having to dig exploratory excavations. The results come back as sub-surface anomalies that can be individually investigated.

In 2005, a series of anomalies in the northern portion of the site turned out to be perhaps one of the most significant discoveries of its type in the past several decades. The geophysical data indicated there was some sort of very large pit feature with a very high magnetic signature at the center of what appeared to be a 200-foot diameter wooden-post enclosure, or henge, with a single out-turned opening or gateway just a few degrees off from due south. Inside the henge there are at least two of what was been interpreted as house structures or perhaps ceremonial floors.

In 2006, Dr. Robert Riordan, students from Wright State University and selected volunteers began an ongoing investigation of what became known as the Moorehead Circle, named in honor of Warren King Moorehead, former curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society and an early investigator of Fort Ancient. In fact, it was largely through his efforts that the state legislature was made aware of the site's importance and Fort Ancient being set aside as Ohio's first archaeology reserve.

The past field seasons at Fort Ancient have revealed that the large central pit was filled with soil burned at a high enough temperature to turn it bright brick red. However, it appears that it had been burned at some other location, scooped up and gleaned of any foreign material, including charcoal, and redeposited in the pit at the center of the circle. Surrounding the central-pit feature is a shallow ring-shaped feature that contains a sizeable number of pottery fragments and small flint artifacts. The henge that surrounds the site was tested in two places and it was found that the posts used in its construction were of a large diameter (up to 12 inches) and placed with fairly regular spacing. Most were deeply set and held in place with up to 200 pounds of stone chinking. The slip trenches used to erect the posts, their large diameters and the amount of stone needed to hold them in place indicates that the posts were likely of a telephone-pole size - architecture on a truly monumental scale.

Work on the interior of the circle begun last year and continuing at present indicates a single large or complex set of smaller limestone slab plazas inside the south side of the circle possibly associated with the supposed house structures. To complicate things even further, it would appear that these plaza features were cross cut by a series of shallow, squared trenches some time after their original construction.

What does it all mean? It is far too early to connect all the dots, so to speak, and it will probably take many more field seasons of work to make a correct interpretation. An area of nearly 35,000 square feet and working just a few weeks a season makes work to understand the Moorehead Circle slow going.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

Don't Judge a Museum by It's Cover

It’s typical or so it would seem that most large universities, state museums and state historical societies often house large and very important archaeological collections. The archaeological holdings of the Ohio Historical Society number in the hundreds of thousands and include collections that range from irreplaceable ceremonial objects and other items of prehistoric art to small collections that contain a few projectile points and a small quantity of flint debitage or flakeage.

There are also Cultural Resource management collections that contain a wide array of materials both historic and prehistoric that were recovered during surveys for highways, pipelines or other construction projects involving federal funds. It is also true that many smaller, local museums have exceptional collections. The Johnson Humrickhouse Museum in Roscoe Village near Coshocton has a well assembled and diverse collection of prehistoric artifacts, early firearms and other Ohioanna, early decorative arts and a fine selection of Oriental objects.


It’s definitely worth the trip to view their wonderful collection. Another outstanding museum collection is the Darby Collection presently housed at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins W.Va. The Darby Collection is the legacy of H. M. Darby, a wealthy benefactor who more than a century ago amassed a very important collection of prehistoric artifacts as well as colonial period and early American objects.

According to a recent issue of WV Magazine: …One of the best-kept secrets on D&E’s picturesque campus is tucked away on the third floor of Halliehurst. Known as the Darby Collection, it is an incredible collection of American, European, Inuit, and Native American artifacts dating back to the Stone Age, donated to the school by H.M. Darby, a local builder.

Only a small portion of the treasures is on display. According to the Smithsonian, the collection’s more than 200 Spanish, French, English, and American powder horns, dating from the early 1600s, is one of the finest in the East Coast. Also attached is a link to a newspaper article about the same. It seems to hold true that like books, museums and their collections should not be judged by their cover.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

ADENA ARCHAEOLOGY IN FRANKLIN COUNTY, OHIO

According to William C. Mills, former Curator of Archaeology (and later Director) of the Ohio Historical Society, there used to be 132 mounds and 28 earthen enclosures in Franklin County. Very few of these have survived the depredations of historic farming and more recent development across the county.

Four mounds located north of Columbus were going to be lost when Alum Creek was dammed to create the Alum Creek Reservoir. They included the Bagley Mound, James Mound, La Moreaux Mound, White Mound and Alum Creek Mound. Fortunately, however, at least these mounds were investigated by the Ohio Historical Society, under contract to the National Park Service, prior to their inundation, so we have a record of what they contained – and not just the objects themselves, but also detailed records of their context.

They appear to be more or less typical burial mounds of the Adena culture, although the archaeologists recovered no formal burials and only a few fragments of burned human bone from these mounds. The Bagley, James, La Moreaux and White Mound had traces of circular wooden structures at their base that likely served, at least partly, as places where mortuary rituals took place. Perhaps the honored dead were housed here on a temporary basis, while the proper rites were performed. Once the rituals were concluded, the spiritual leaders removed the human remains, dismantled the structures and built a mound over the site.

In my latest column for the Columbus Dispatch, I report on a recent re-analysis of these mounds undertaken by Christopher Hays, an archaeologist with the University of Wisconsin – Washington County. Hays' results appear in the Summer 2010 issue of the journal Southeastern Archaeology. He compared what was found in the Alum Creek mounds with what Ohio Historical Society archaeologists found in four approximately contemporary mound sites from the Columbus area – the Davis and Greenbrier mounds located along Big Walnut Creek, the Toephner Mound located along the Scioto River just north of its confluence with the Olentangy River and the Dominion Land Company site, which included a large circular enclosure and two mounds located along the Olentangy River.

You can read my Archaeology column in the Columbus Dispatch to see what Hays learned about the patterns of mortuary ceremonialism in the mounds from these two neighboring areas, but it's a fascinating look at the religious lives of the American Indian peoples that lived in central Ohio between about 800 BC and AD 100.

It's worth noting, however, that Hays' reanalysis would not have been possible if the artifacts, photographs and records of these investigations had not been maintained by the Ohio Historical Society. Our collections are a kind of library that researchers can consult for new insights into the lives of ancient Ohioans. As new analytical techniques are developed or new explanations are proposed, these collections can be consulted to learn new and formerly unexpected things or test new hypotheses about the life and times of ancient cultures. If a researcher in the future decides, for example, that Hays was wrong about some of his interpretations, the material will be here for her or him to check the facts against their alternative hypothesis. That's how science works.

If you want to read more about the archaeology of Franklin County, I highly recommend the short booklet by Don Gehlbach entitled, appropriately enough, The Archaeology of Franklin County, Ohio. Don is a dedicated amateur archaeologist who works as a volunteer in the OHS Archaeology Unit.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

Archaeology Discovery of Homo habilis and Homo erectus

Whether they are mother-and-daughter species or two sisters, the relationship between Homo habilis and Homo erectus is becoming strained. A pair of discoveries near Lake Ileret in Kenya call into question the idea that H. erectus, the species from which modern humans evolved, is descended from H. habilis, the earliest hominid known to use stone tools.

A team of paleoanthropologists led by Meave and Louise Leakey of the Koobi Fora Research Project uncovered the upper jawbone of a H. habilis dated to 1.44 million years ago, and the skull of a H. erectus dated to 1.55 million years ago. H. habilis was thought to have gradually evolved into H. erectus over hundreds of thousands of years, fading out of existence around 1.65 million years ago. A previously discovered H. erectus fossil dated to 1.9 million years combined with the new finds show the two species lived together in the same lake basin for close to 500,000 years.

The discovery of a Homo habilis jawbone and a Homo erectus skull that are close in age has paleontologists rethinking the idea that H. habilis evolved into H. erectus. (National Museums of Kenya/Fred Spoor)

“I think increasingly they will be recognized as sister species that lived in the same area and did different things,” says Fred Spoor of University College London and a member of the team. H. erectus‘ smaller teeth and less powerful jaws suggest it was probably eating more meat. If the two species both evolved from a common ancestor, it changes the human race’s relationship to H. habilis. “Strictly speaking, if our scenario is correct,” says Spoor, “Homo habilis, as we know the species, seems to be a dead branch.”

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

Discovery of Otzi the Iceman

The 5,300-year-old mummy–dubbed “Ötzi the Iceman”–found frozen in the Alps in 1991 made headlines again in 2007. Researchers at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, where Ötzi’s remains are housed, conducted CT scans that revealed exactly how he died: an arrow to the back pierced an artery; basically, he bled to death. Although X-rays and CT scans carried out in 2001 showed that an arrow had been wedged in his shoulder, this new evidence suggests the arrow inflicted the fatal blow (after which, the poor guy fell, hit his head, and suffered a brain hemorrhage).

For more than 15 years, scientists have been reconstructing every detail of Ötzi’s life, down to the contents of his last meal. One of their most interesting findings was that the Iceman sports some of the world’s oldest tattoos, most of which resemble blue-black hash marks. Many tattoo artists feel they are carrying on his tradition even today, a phenomenon that may have had a role in another significant story this year.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

A Remarkable Neolithic Mural Discovered in Syria

The discovery didn’t make our list last year, but further archaeology excavation this past summer revealed that the team had only uncovered the very top of the mural in 2006. “During the 2007 campaign we excavated the complete panel, about three and a half feet by six feet,” says expedition leader Eric Coqueugniot. “We also discovered a new wall with similar geometric patterns in a very good state of preservation.” The paintings decorate the walls of a round communal building about 25 feet wide that probably served some ritual purpose. In the same structure Coqueugniot’s team discovered anthropomorphic figurines made of gypsum and chalk.

The rules guiding our selection of the top discoveries of 2007 disqualified the Djade al Mugahara mural from being included, since archaeologists announced the discovery of the masterwork in 2006. But archaeology is an incremental science, every season of excavation builds on the one before it, and the significance of a discovery made one year may only become apparent after further work. This year Coqueugniot’s team not only gave us a more vivid glimpse into the ritual life of Djade al Mugahara, but a sense of just how close Neolithic aesthetic sensibilities were to those of early European modernists, the kind of eerie connection with the past that only archaeology can make.

In the fall of 2006, French archaeologists digging at the Neolithic site of Djade al Mugahara in northern Syria announced the discovery of a remarkable mural. Made up of red, black, and white geometric shapes painted 11,000 years ago, the small panel bore an uncanny resemblance to the early work of modernist masters Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

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Egypt archaeologist Zahi Hawass faces criticisms about his job, ties to Mubarak

For a moment, Zahi Hawass, the most famous archaeologist in the world, sounds a bit like Eva Peron.

In his office at the ministry for antiquities, the man in charge of this country’s 5,000-year legacy of cultural history, the man everyone calls Dr. Zahi, sits at an empty desk, with four telephones to one side. A cellphone is buzzing in his hand. Young women come and go, always in a hurry, responding to his urgent — one might say imperious — beck and call.

After two months of revolution and recrimination, which has seen him in and out of power, he is madly multitasking: Struggling to preserve ancient sites from theft and the encroachment of illegal construction, while working just as frantically to preserve his power base in a wildly shifting political landscape.

“I am not from the old regime,” Hawass says.

On March 3, with angry young archaeologists calling for his head, Hawass resigned from the top ministerial position given to him by now-deposed president Hosni Mubarak. That job not only made him powerful in Egypt, it also gave him sway over the careers of international archaeologists who work in this land of pyramids, temples, churches and mosques. But 27 days later, Hawass was put back in charge, because, he argues, no one else can do the job.

His position is far from secure. On Sunday, a criminal court convicted him for ignoring an earlier civil judgment brought against his ministry in a case involving concession contracts at the Egyptian Museum. It is likely only the first step in a protracted legal battle, and the sentence — a year in jail, loss of his post and a fine — hasn’t been enforced.

The ugly web of controversy in which he is embroiled, however, goes well beyond this latest contretemps, which Hawass describes as no more than a misunderstanding. The return of a man known for his autocratic style raises questions about the future of government reform in Egypt, and it presents a challenge to Western cultural leaders.

Hawass vigorously supported Mubarak during the early days of the mass protests that ended the president’s 30-year rule on Feb. 11 — which may come as something of a shock to those Westerners who know Hawass as a charming, spirited and charismatic popularizer of all things Egyptian. (He is the star of the His­tory Channel show “Chasing Mummies” and an explorer in residence at the National Geographic Society).

For now, the mummy chaser is speaking the rhetoric of revolution. The revolution was a good thing, Hawass says, and he drops fashionable phrases such as “the young people and the army together,” which have become unity mantras in a country in which old-guard army leaders are now in charge of assuring that a popular democracy movement will lead to genuine political transformation. He has created a complaints department at his ministry, and he is sponsoring an exhibition devoted to the revolution.

And he is distancing himself from Suzanne Mubarak, wife of the man now called simply Pharaoh, with whom local sources say he had a close personal friendship. The two were frequently seen together at blue-chip cultural events.

“I was not that close a friend,” Hawass says, adding that he has not been in touch with Suzanne Mubarak since the ruler’s family fled to the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

But it won’t be easy to scrub the record. Hawass’s connections to the powerful gave him the ability to cut through the red tape, negotiate the internecine byways of Egypt’s sclerotic bureacracy and get things done in a way that made him indispensable to outside institutions. He is the only person who can greenlight excavations by international teams that want to dig in Egypt. The exhibition of Egyptian material in foreign museums requires his approval, and those exhibitions can be a cash cow for blockbuster-hungry institutions.


But conflicting statements about the damage done at the renowned but dilapidated Egyptian Museum, which overlooks ground zero of the revolution, Tahrir Square, have severely undermined Hawass’s credibility. Initially downplaying the losses at the museum, Hawass later acknowledged that dozens of important pieces were missing. Local ­sources reported this week that as many as 1,000 important objects are unaccounted for at sites across Egypt.

Hawass has explained the confusing statements as the fog of war during the chaotic early days of the revolution, and his ministry is now issuing regular statements announcing the return of significant pieces. (Some of these strain the credulity of local archaeologists — for example, a report in the Al-Shorouk independent newspaper that four recently returned objects were discovered in an unattended handbag at a Cairo Metro station.)

Despite Hawass’s projection of calm and control, his critics say that looting continues apace at archaeological sites removed from Cairo, and there are almost daily media reports of antiquities smuggling, including a truckload crossing by ferry from Egypt to Jordan.

Abd El Halim Nur El-Din, former head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (the organization that was recently transformed into the ministry Hawass leads), says that Hawass’s management style makes it impossible for him to lead the ministry effectively.

“Zahi never listens to anyone, he never visits the archaeological sites, he only meets with the media and with stars,” he says of a man who has squired President Obama around the pyramids and supped with actor Omar Sharif. Nur El-Din also repeats allegations that have circulated widely here: that antiquities have gone missing after VIPs were given Hawass-led tours and that priceless objects have been discovered in the possession of Egypt’s former top leadership.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

Oldest case of clogged arteries in Egypt mummy: study

The first known case of clogged arteries, or atherosclerosis, has been found in the mummy of an Egyptian princess, said a study presented Sunday at a major US cardiology conference.

Researchers have long known that ancient Egyptians suffered from plaque build-up in the arteries that supply the heart, but the latest finding suggests that the syndrome may be more prevalent, and mysterious, than previously thought.

"Commonly, we think of coronary artery or heart disease as a consequence of modern lifestyles, mainly because it has increased in developing countries as they become more westernized," said Gregory Thomas of the University of California, Irvine.

"These data point to a missing link in our understanding of heart disease, and we may not be so different from our ancestors," he said.

Researchers performed computerized tomography (CT) scans on 52 Egyptian mummies to determine whether they had atherosclerosis.

Of the 44 that had detectable arteries or hearts, 45 percent of them had calcium buildups in their vessel walls.

The oldest among them was an Egyptian princess who likely lived between 1580 and 1550 BC, and probably died when she was in her early 40s, researchers believe.

Even though ancient Egyptians ate a leaner diet, including less meat, and did not smoke cigarettes, they ended up with the same disease as modern humans.

But that does not mean people should disregard modern research, said co-author of the study Adel Allam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

"Recent studies have shown that by not smoking, having a lower blood pressure and a lower cholesterol level, calcification of our arteries is delayed," said Allam.

"On the other hand, from what we can tell from this study, humans are predisposed to atherosclerosis, so it behooves us to take the proper measures necessary to delay it as long as we can."

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.

Did archaeologists cover up discovery of nails from Jesus’ cross?

An Israeli-Canadian journalist believes he may have tracked down two of the iron nails used to crucify Jesus to the cross—or at least objects that could be the long-lost relics.

While researching a segment for the History Channel series Secrets of Christianity, host and producer Simcha Jacobovici learned something that startled him: In 1990, Israeli archeologists excavating a 2,000-year-old burial cave discovered two nails crafted by the Romans, but they kept the discovery quiet.

They did, however, publicize the discovery of two ossuaries—stone burial boxes filled with human bones—with the inscriptions “Caiaphas” and “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” The latter intricately carved ossuary toured the world and now is prominently displayed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. According to the Gospels, Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest who handed Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion.

“There’s a general scholarly consensus that the tomb where the nails were found likely belonged to Caiaphas. Nails at that time were a dime a dozen, but finding one in a tomb is exceedingly rare,” Jacobovici said outside the high stone walls of the Old City, where Jesus spent his final days.

When Jacobovici found a brief reference to the nails in the official archeologists’ report, “my jaw dropped,” he said. “It would be as if, 2,000 years from now, archaeologists uncovered the cave of Muhammad Ali but neglected to mention the pair of boxing gloves found there. Sure, boxing gloves are common, but perhaps those particular gloves had special significance to the boxer?”

Jacobovici also hosts the Naked Archaeologist series on History International and collaborated with filmmaker James Cameron on the controversial 2007 documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

In the segment “Nails of the Cross,” which airs on the History Channel, Jacobovici attempts to discover why the researchers felt the nails were unimportant.

“Everything else is so meticulous, yet there are no photos or drawings or measurements of the nails. When I inquired at the Israel Antiquities Authority, I was told they had gone missing.”

“Caiaphas is known for one thing only—the trial and Crucifixion of Jesus,” Jacobovici said. “He may have felt compelled to take these nails with him to his grave.”

There also was the belief among some ancient Jews that nails had healing powers “and were a ticket to the afterlife. Other items found in the tomb show that this was a superstitious guy,” he added.

The history detective searched the IAA’s vast warehouses and then tried to find the location of the long-sealed tomb, which now lies beneath a public park. Finally, on a hunch, Jacobovici approached Israel Hershkovitz, a forensic anthropologist at Tel Aviv University, who also is expert on crucifixions.

“When I asked Hershkovitz if he’d received two nails about 20 years ago, he knew exactly what I was talking about and located them within minutes,” Jacobovici recalled.

Hershkovitz could not say where the nails had been found because the original packaging lacked the information. He could not be reached for comment.

While Hershkovitz knows for certain the nails came from the IAA, there’s no conclusive link that they came from the Caiaphas tomb. And Israeli archaeologists seem as reluctant to comment this time around as they were back in 1990.

When the anthropologist showed Jacobovici an ancient heel bone impaled with a nail—the only such crucifixion specimen ever unearthed—“I realized that the Caiaphas nails were similar, though shorter. The tips appeared purposely bent to keep them from falling off the wood.”

Jacobovici asked Hershkovitz whether the nails could have been used to crucify a person’s hands to a cross. Hershkovitz said “yes.”

The limestone residue on one of the nails clinched it for Jacobovici, “because one of the nails was found in the ossuary, the other on the ground” of the burial cave, where it would be exposed to limestone.

Gabriel Barkay, a professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, called Jacobovici’s investigation “very challenging, very interesting, very intriguing, but it’s a TV show and not a scholarly study. There’s no proof whatsoever that they originate in the tomb of Caiaphas. It’s all conjecture.”

Nails were used for “many purposes,” Barkay noted, “from fixing iron gates to wooden doors and coffins.”

Ronny Reich, a Haifa University archeologist who deciphered the writing in the Caiaphas cave, believes the cave “belongs to a member of the Caiaphas family, but we have no evidence it belongs to the high priest.”

Jacobovici, however, is certain his research will withstand scrutiny, even if it seems largely circumstantial at first glance.

“Skepticism is good. As with the Shroud of Turin, you can’t be 100 percent certain, but believers don’t need 100 percent certainty. They need a solid ‘could be,’ and that’s what we’re offering.”

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.