Archaeological News

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Nearly 400 ancient medical tools from Turkey hint at rare Roman doctors’ offices

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Hundreds of Roman-era medical instruments now being examined by scientists may come from one of the earliest known examples of a group medical practice, or at least a place where health care workers congregated to treat people.

A total of 348 artifacts linked to medicine were found at the site of Allianoi, an ancient town that also hosted a large spa-like bath in what is now Turkey. The vast number of the 1,800-year-old artifacts may indicate the site once featured an ancient medical center. The instruments were discovered during rescue excavations that were carried out between 1998 and 2006, before the construction of a dam that flooded the site. Most of the artifacts, which have been studied over the years, were found within two buildings in a larger complex. Read more.

archaeology  archeology  roman-era  medical instruments  turkey  allianoi 


90,000-year-old human footprints found on a Moroccan beach are some of the oldest and best preserved in the world

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Two trails of ancient human footprints pressed into a beach in Morocco form one of the largest and best-preserved trackways in the world.

Researchers happened upon the footprint site near the northern tip of North Africa in 2022 while studying boulders at a nearby pocket beach, according to a study published Jan. 23 in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Between tides, I said to my team that we should go north to explore another beach,” study lead author Mouncef Sedrati, an associate professor of coastal dynamics and geomorphology at the University of Southern Brittany in France, told Live Science. “We were surprised to find the first print. At first, we weren’t convinced it was a footprint, but then we found more of the trackway.” Read more.

archaeology  archeology  footprints  morocco  beach 


Hoard of Bronze Age jewelry discovered in Poland was part of ancient water burial ritual, study finds

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Archaeologists in Poland have discovered a collection of more than 550 pieces of Bronze Age jewelry that were once part of an ancient burial ritual.

Known as Papowo Biskupie, the dried-out lake bed site was occupied from roughly 1200 to 450 B.C. by the Chełmno group, a community from the larger Lusatian culture that lived in northern Europe during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, according to a study published Wednesday (Jan. 24) in the journal Antiquity.

The Lusatians are best known for their ritual depositions of metal hoards in bodies of water. However, the Chełmno group was not known for engaging in this practice.

But the new jewelry finding, made by metal detectorists in 2023, upends that perception. Read more.

archaeology  archeology  poland  jewelry  bronze age  burial ritual  papowo biskupie  Chełmno  lusatian 


Roman-era wine shop, possibly destroyed in an earthquake, discovered in Greece

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Archaeologists in Greece have discovered a 1,600-year-old wine shop that was destroyed and abandoned after a “sudden event,” possibly an earthquake or building collapse, left broken vessels and 60 coins scattered on the floor, according to new research.

The shop operated at a time when the Roman Empire controlled the region. It was found in the ancient city of Sikyon (also spelled Sicyon), which is located on the northern coast of the Peloponnese in southern Greece. Within the wine shop, archaeologists found the scattered coins, as well as the remains of marble tabletops and vessels made of bronze, glass and ceramic. Read more.

archaeology  archeology  wine  greece  wine shop  earthquake 


Mysterious skeleton found in Hernán Cortés’ palace revealed to be Indigenous woman, not Spanish monk

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A skeleton visible within a burial at the entrance of the palace of Hernán Cortés —the Spanish conquistador who caused the fall of the Aztec Empire — is not the remains of a Spanish monk as was long thought. Instead, a new analysis reveals that the bones belonged to a middle-aged Indigenous woman.

When a powerful magnitude 7.1 earthquake rattled the Mexican states of Puebla and Morelos as well as Mexico City in 2017, buildings collapsed and thousands of people were injured. The Palace of Cortés, which was built by 1535 and now serves as a museum, was severely damaged, requiring extensive repair work that was completed in early 2023. During this work, researchers took stock of all objects within the museum, including an open burial exhibited at the entrance to the palace. Read more.

archaeology  archeology  hernan cortes  burial  mexico  indigenous 


2 golden tongues symbolizing ‘flesh of the gods’ unearthed in ancient Egyptian mummies

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Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered two mummies outfitted with golden tongues at the ancient town of Oxyrhynchus, bringing the total number of golden tongues found at the location to 16, archaeologists say.

During the Roman period (29 B.C. to A.D. 641), the Egyptians put golden tongues inside the mouths of some mummies so that the mummy would be able to use their tongue in the afterlife and because the ancient Egyptians believed that gold was the “flesh of the gods,” Esther Pons Mellado and Maite Mascort, co-directors of the archaeological mission of Oxyrhynchus, told Live Science in an email. Mummies with gold tongues were thought to have the ability to speak with Osiris in the underworld of the afterlife. Read more.

archaeology  archeology  egypt  mummies  tongues  golden tongues 


Ancient Egyptian mummy masks, tombs and ‘god of silence’ statue discovered at Saqqara

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Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a series of tombs dating from about 1,800 to 4,800 years ago, some of which contain colorful mummy masks and even the childlike statue of the god of silence, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The colorful mummy masks, which would have been worn by the dead, date to the Ptolemaic period (304 to 30 B.C.) and Roman period (29 B.C. to A.D. 641), according to Nozomu Kawai, the director of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources at Kanazawa University in Japan, who led the excavations.

The archaeologists also found a small statue showing Harpocrates, a Greek god that looks like a child who is associated with silence, riding a goose. The goose represents “an evil spirit over which the Divine Child triumphs,” Kawai told Live Science in an email. Read more.

archaeology  archeology  egypt  tombs  masks  mummy masks  harpocrates