ancient

An ancient necropolis in England has revealed what was Rome’s great weapon in Britain. And it has little to do with his army

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The Roman Empire was forged with swords, strategy and hordes of legionaries, but the eternal city had an even more effective resource than its military power: its magnetism. Sometimes, before the soldiers, what reached the future conquered territories was the commercial influence of Rome. The clearest example has just been offered to us by Essex, United Kingdom, where archaeologists They have found a necropolis with several copper vessels, amphorae, nails, brooches and even a delicate molded glass bowl, an exclusive piece. The important thing, however, is not so much the ‘what’ as the ‘when’. Experts believe that those pieces that tell us about a connection with Rome are prior to the invasion of Britain in 43 AD, so they reveal a previous cultural, diplomatic and economic contact between both worlds. What has happened? What archaeologists have discovered an ancient necropolis south of the United Kingdom which confirms that, before the Roman invasion of 43 AD launched by Emperor Claudius, the region was already permeable to the influence that came from the other side of the English Channel. It is a key detail because it tells us both about the Iron Age in modern-day England and about Rome’s ability to extend its cultural influence beyond its military power. What have they found? A cemetery near Chelmsford, Essex. When excavating the area, researchers from UCL Institute of Archeology They located the cremated remains of more than a hundred individuals buried there about 2,000 years ago. To be more precise, the tombs appeared in an area surrounded by a ditch and, according to expertsdates for the most part from the 1st AD, so it “marks the transition towards Roman domination in Great Britain.” Why is it important? As they delved deeper, the archaeologists saw two clearly differentiated types of graves: there were the most common ones, which numbered in dozens and basically consisted of urns with the remains of the deceased; and then a handful of burials were identified that, due to their characteristics and decorations, reveal a higher social status. There are only five, but they have been revealing. Revealing why? Because, in addition to cremated remains, funerary trousseau was deposited in the tombs that reveal the social status that the deceased had enjoyed in the East Anglia of the Iron Age. Experts located vessels made of copper, ceramic wine amphorae, horseshoe nails, brooches and even a detailed molded glass bowl, an exceptional piece as it is probably one of the first to arrive in Britain. And is that important? Yes. Because of its origin and (above all) the history it suggests to us. “These exceptional grave goods are likely to reflect diplomatic contacts and economic exchanges between Iron Age peoples in Britain and the Roman Empire, which were already taking place before the Roman conquest of 43 AD,” reflect Angus Forshaw, one of the experts leading the UCL Archeology excavations. In the case of the amphorae, Forshaw believes they may have arrived in Britain filled with wine for local elites. As for the bowl, he believes that it was probably “a very prized personal possession” of the deceased, which is why it ended up in his grave. “The period surrounding the Roman conquest was a time of immense political and cultural change. These burials could have been a way for different Iron Age communities to signal their identity, their power and their supposed loyalty to Rome,” duck Samara King, from Archeology South-East. And now what? There is still a lot of work ahead. The experts of Archeologym South-Eastt are in charge of cleaning and analyzing in detail the different objects extracted from the necropolis. They also examine the Essex site and its dozens of tombs to learn more about the people who were buried there, especially those who occupied the most elaborate tombs. In principle, experts believe that the burials have certain parallels with others located in the area that are reminiscent of cremations discovered in Stansted and Stanway, as well as sites in Hertfodshire. Furthermore, its focus is not only on the graves. Excavations have revealed more Iron Age structures, including three previously unknown settlements with their moats, cultivation and wells spread over 11 hectares. Images | UCL and Wikipedia In Xataka | 90 years ago, archaeologists in Mexico encountered the greatest enigma of pre-Hispanic America: a Roman head

In Alicante they are experts making works with ancient art. Until they found a Roman sphinx embedded in a staircase

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Recycling in the architecture of Antiquity (or the Middle Ages) was neither an ecological sensitivity nor an aesthetic trend. Rather, it was pure and simple economic survival. If you had good quality square stone, go ahead and build. It mattered little whether that stone had been part of a temple dedicated to Jupiter, whether it was the statue of a disgraced emperor or, as in this case, a mythological creature. It has a name: architectural cannibalism is known in the art world as spolia. And thanks (or because) of it, Spanish archeology has just solved a mystery that had been gathering dust in a warehouse for decades. In the archaeological site of El Monastil, located in the town of Elda (Alicante), researchers have “decrypted” a piece who had been camouflaged under a false identity for too long. The rain acting as an archaeologist. It all started in the year 2000, during the arduous excavation work of a late Roman wall located in El Monastil. Workers unearthed a three-step ladder that looked like a typical routine structural find. The following year, the Levantine climate worked its magic: torrential rains swept the area and caused the ashlars to collapse, exposing new features. Upon inspecting the damage, the team led by archaeologist Antonio M. Poveda discovered that one of the blocks was not conventionally quarried stone. The deliberate marks betrayed a previous history. Which? That someone, during the Visigoth or Byzantine occupation in the 5th or 6th centuries, mutilated a monumental sculpture, cutting it down with a sledgehammer to turn it into a simple step. Twenty years of confusion. Carved from local beige limestone, it was barely 31 centimeters high and 55 centimeters wide; what remains is a tiny fraction of its original volume. This sphinx was missing its head, wings and legs, with a surface so eroded by blows that its identification became a headache: an Iberian female figure or a random goddess? It wasn’t until last year, when the Archaeological Museum of Elda A thorough cleaning was undertaken when, in collaboration with Professor Ferrán Arasa i Gil, one of the greatest experts in Roman sculpture in Spain, remains were compared. And the shape matched too well with other sphinxes found in limes Germanic, from Romania and northern Italy. The verdict was unanimous: a Roman funerary sphinx from the 1st century AD The sophisticated security system for the afterlife. This creature of Egyptian origin and Greek traces is no ornament. And here is the key: it is a psychopomp, the guide in charge of collecting the soul of the deceased and transporting it. Its presence in the tomb fulfills an apotropaic function: the fierce gaze and hybrid posture, with the body of a lion and the torso of a woman, exist to scare away looters and protect the eternal sleep of those who rested beneath it. Have you seen ‘The Neverending Story’? His famous fulminating sphinxes are inspired by the same. Apparently, the owner of this piece was part of the rural elite of Ilici Augusta (current Elche). They were landowners who, in a time of great prosperity under Augustus and the Julio-Claudians, competed to display social status through monumental mausoleums. Built next to the Via Augusta. So the figure was another banner of power and prestige in full Romanization. He plunders well without looking at who. For the Visigoths, the sphinx was no longer a sacred symbol. The case of Elda, with this disdain for the artistic past in favor of pragmatism, rhymes quite well with other recycling imposed in Baetulo (Badalona), Segóbriga (Cuenca), Obulco (Jaén) or Carissa Aurelia (Cádiz). The most canonical example is found in the mosque of Córdoba: Abd al-Rahman I reused Roman and Visigoth columns and capitals, from the temple of Janus, from previous Christian villas and basilicas, to raise the forest of columns in the prayer room. In Toledo, the Christ of Light is the ancient Bab al-Mardum mosque. San Pedro de la Nave, in Zamora, was a 7th century Visigoth church dismantled and reassembled like a collage. And the same with the Basilica of Santa Eulalia, in Mérida, built on a Roman temple dedicated to Mars. Even the Almohad minaret of the Giralda in Seville was converted into a Christian bell tower by the braves. What makes special Monastil is that it is an inexhaustible “matryoshka” of civilizations. This Alicante site is a time capsule where the Bronze Age, the Punic presence, the Roman military base from the time of Pompey, the Byzantine monastery and the later Visigoth church overlap. In this immense network of strata it is easy to find history cut up and relocated, outside the contexts for which it was created. Many now lie in the warehouse of the Elda museum, treasures waiting to be reclassified and archaeological history rewritten. Images | FoxR for Wikipedia, Flickr (Santiago López-Pastor) In Xataka | If the question is how the Egyptian pyramids were made, science has an idea: hydraulic systems In Xataka | In a display of technical superiority, France has just invented traditional white towns. We, however, have forgotten about them

hides a curse in ancient Greek

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In the cities of ancient Greece and Rome and outside the official laws of the state, there existed a dark world of secrets and superstitions. Thus, when someone felt that justice was not on their side or had a pending dispute, they would wait until the dark night to hide small sheets of metal in cemeteries or sacred wells, imploring the help of the gods of the underworld to resolve their earthly disputes. It is precisely in that framework of dark beliefs where one finds the latest discovery deciphered by a research team at the University of Heidelberg: a lead tablet written in Greek that treasures the hatred and fear of someone specific. The discovery. The tablet in question is made of lead, has writings in ancient Greek and was found in Heerlen (Netherlands), in what was formerly an ancient Roman military settlement in the province of Germania Inferior called Coriovallum. The device was in a pit under the town hall square. When the Institute of Papyrology at the University of Heidelberg analyzed its inscription, it found something exceptional: the tablet dated to the 2nd century AD does not have Latin texts, as would be expected given the time and location, but rather an ancient Greek text in the Egyptian style. The lead tablet measures 9.3 by 4.8 centimeters and contains a group of three magical symbols, known as “characters.” According to Dr. Rodney Astdirector of the Institute of Papyrology, were used to transmit the message to supernatural powers. Then, the names of four people appear: two men with Latin names and two women with Greek names, who have been identified as slaves. According to Ast, the tablet served either as a curse against those four slaves or as a curse issued in the name of the quartet against an unidentified person. Why is it important. The most striking thing about the device is that most of the curse tablets found in northern Europe are written in Latin, so this is rare. As explains Professor Dr. Joachim Quackdirector of the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg, “in the first centuries of our era, Near Eastern, Egyptian, Jewish and even, at times, Christian traditions merged and spread increasingly throughout the Roman Empire of the time”, that it was in Greek further broadens the spectrum in a kind of ancient cultural globalization. Context. The curse tablets they knew each other as defixiones in Latin or katadesmoi in Greek and were made of lead for a reason: it is a heavy metal, cold to the touch and easy to work with. Once completed, they were buried to “bind” or influence the person targeted by the spell. These types of artifacts existed for about a thousand years, from 500 BC to 500 AD, and have been found in Athens, Rome, Syria and even in England. In detail. Registration also suggests that the author of the tablet could have been one of two women with a Greek name, possibly originally from Roman Egypt, who would have brought with her the knowledge of this form of communication with divine powers. If true, it is direct evidence of mobility of enslaved people with knowledge of rituals throughout the Empire. Yes, but. At the moment all we have are the statements of the archeology team that discovered it and their first analyses, but a more exhaustive analysis is still needed. In short, it’s just a start. On the other hand, there are questions that will hardly be answered, such as who exactly cursed whom or if the author is truly of Egyptian origin. In Xataka | DNA from 64 bones under an underground chamber clarifies who the Mayans sacrificed: children and adolescents In Xataka | Brains boiling until their skulls explode: the deadly horror caused by Vesuvius Cover | Heidelberg University and Gemini

the decline of Rome and the ancient world

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Sometime between the 5th and 9th centuries, the epicenter of the world shifted: the hegemony of the Mediterranean under the Roman Empire disappeared and that power, wealth and commercial networks moved to northern Europe and the Middle East. But no one is clear when, why, or how it happened, although there is a enormous record of letters that helps understand its decline. There is no consensus on whether what collapsed first was politics or the economy, but of course: there were no records of production, consumption or trade data, but instead we had to rely on archaeological finds and fragments of literature. A team of economists has responded of the pull to all these issues through ancient coins, reconstructing the economic activity of the Mediterranean immediately afterwards. In short, and reminiscent of Watergate, they have followed the money trail. More specifically, almost half a million of them distributed in thousands of treasures buried between the year 325 and 950 AD. In short, and remembering Watergate, they have followed the money trail. What ancient coins say. More specifically, they have assembled a database of 494,229 ancient coins from 5,625 treasures buried between 325 and 950 AD in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Each coin records the place of minting, the issuing dynasty, date of minting and place of discovery. The authors reach four conclusions that qualify more or less known information: The Mediterranean economic decline begins in the 5th century. The arrival of Islam collapses trade between the north and south of the Mediterranean, but trade between Islamic regions prospers strongly. Actual consumption peaks in the Middle East during the 8th century, under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. In the 9th century, the Atlantic fringe is the richest area of ​​the ancient Western world. That is, six centuries before the great voyages of exploration. Why is it important. The last of his conclusions is especially interesting because what it says is that the Atlantic economic rise occurs 700 years before European colonial expansion. Seven centuries before Columbus and the exploration that allowed them to establish trade routes and extract resources, the Atlantic was already the richest area. Furthermore, it pokes into the wound of one of the most heated and extensive debates in medieval history: what destroyed Mediterranean trade and pushed Europe northward. The Belgian historian Henri Pirenne summarizes it in one sentence: “without Muhammad, Charlemagne would have been inconceivable” pointing to Arab expansion as the cause. And broadly speaking, this work agrees with him, but with a nuance: the timing was different, since the Roman decline began earlier. This changes causality: Islam does not cause Mediterranean decline, it ends it. Context. The period studied begins in the year 325 AD, when the Mediterranean is still Roman territory, and continues until 950 AD, when Carolingian Europe and the Islamic world have been consolidated for centuries. In that interval, milestones occur such as the division of the Roman Empire (395), the fall of Rome to Odoacer (476), wars Byzantine-Sassanids (602 – 628) and the dazzling Arab expansion. In between, a couple of natural disasters to take into account: the Plague of Justinian (the first big explosion was in 541 – 549) and the little ice age of late antiquity(536 – 660), caused by volcanic eruptions and which caused temperatures in the northern hemisphere to drop almost one degree Celsius. All these events leave their mark on the circulation of people, objects and communications. How have they done it. Coins are one of the materials most studied by archaeology, but almost always in a descriptive way. What this work does is use them as economic data: each coin records where it was minted and when, the treasure in which it appears indicates where and when it was buried. This trajectory works as a trade route proxy. The authors formalize this method with a mathematical model applied in blocks of twenty years, using tools such as ORBIS (the Stanford project on Roman mobility) and the records of the Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasī (985 AD) to reconstruct the routes. The data reveal three patterns: the further away from the minting point, the less exchange; older coins have traveled further and flows across the Mediterranean change sharply in the 7th century with the Arab conquests. That all this coincides with independent studies on Roman ceramics confirms that the method is sound. Yes, but. The great limitation of this work is its own source: the coin hoards are not a random sample of ancient trade, but are found where they are by accident (for example, the sinking of a ship) or buried in the middle. Then, archeology finds them by chance centuries later. Each step introduced is a bias that researchers have tried to mitigate with proportions of coins within each hoard and not absolute volumes, which eliminates part of the problem. Even so, the less excavated areas are probably underrepresented. On the other hand, there is a misconception: coins record monetary circulation, not the entire economy. Trade in spices, self-consumption or redistribution leave no trace in this framework. That consumption collapses in a region may simply mean that the economy was demonetized (something that in fact It happened in post-Roman Europe.), more than impoverishment. In Xataka | Someone has collected 7,049 letters from the Roman Empire: the file that explains the fall of an empire In Xataka | Someone has created the definitive interactive map of the roads of the Roman Empire: there are more than we thought Cover | PxHere and Massimo Virgilio

Some archaeologists have found 80 tons of stones under the sea. Everything points to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

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At the end of the 19th century, several fishermen in the port of Alexandria began to accidentally catch huge fragments of stone entangled in their networks. Some were so large and strange that stories circulated for years about giant ruins hidden underwater off the Egyptian coast. Long before underwater scanners or digital archeology existed, the Mediterranean was already hinting that beneath its waters remained buried a monumental part of the ancient world. 80 tons to return a wonder. Archaeologists and divers they have been finding for years huge blocks of granite and limestone under the waters of Alexandria, but the latest works have triggered a fascinating idea: everything indicates that the Mediterranean is returning key fragments of the legendary Alexandria Lighthouseone of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Some of the recovered blocks weigh up to 80 tons and were part of monumental entrances, platforms and gigantic structures that for centuries remained dispersed on the seabed. The discovery is not only allowing us to reconstruct what the lighthouse really was like, but it is also changing many of the theories that existed about its size, its engineering and its final appearance. A gigantic tower that dominated the Mediterranean. The Lighthouse of Alexandria began to be built at the beginning of the 3rd century BC under the reign of Ptolemy I Soter and it was designed by Sostratus of Cnidus on the island of Pharos, opposite the Egyptian port. Ancient sources described a structure of more than a hundred meters higha type of Hellenistic skyscraper visible dozens of kilometers out to sea thanks to its enormous night fire and complex reflective systems. For more than sixteen hundred years it served as a guide for ships arriving at one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean, also becoming a political symbol of the Ptolemaic power and the ambition of the Alexandria founded after the death of Alexander the Great. Some Roman chroniclers even stated that its light was so intense that it could be confused with a star. 3D reconstruction of the Alexandria Lighthouse The sea ended up swallowing the wonder. The structure withstood earthquakes for centuries, but several huge earthquakes between the 14th and 15th centuries they ended up destroying it almost completely. Part of its stones were later reused to build the Qaitbay fortresswhich still occupies the same coastal area, while the rest of the ancient city began to slowly sink under the sea due to geological movements and the relative rise in the level of the Mediterranean. Over the centuries, the lighthouse eventually disappeared beneath murky waters filled with sediment, architectural remains, and huge stone fragments scattered across dozens of underwater acres. For a long time, historians even thought that ancient descriptions of its size had been exaggerated. Remains of a lighthouse in the Mediterranean Sea A gigantic puzzle. Everything began to change when French and Egyptian archaeologists began to systematically map the eastern port of Alexandria in the 1990s. Sphinxes, columns, colossal statues and gigantic door frames weighing up to seventy tons appeared under the water, but recent work from the PHAROS project They have taken the process much further. Only in recent campaigns have rrecovered 22 huge blocks of granite using special cranes mounted on barges, including lintels, jambs and pieces of a hitherto unknown structure that mixed Egyptian architectural elements and Greek construction techniques. Each find reinforces the idea that the lighthouse was not just a functional tower, but a monumental demonstration of the multicultural power of Hellenistic Alexandria. Reconstructed block by block… but digitally. The New York Times said last February in an extensive report that the great advance of the PHAROS project is not only in removing stones from the water, but in virtually rebuilding the lighthouse with a never seen before precision. The researchers have scanned thousands of fragments using photogrammetry to create a “digital twin” capable of recomposing the building piece by piece without continually moving extremely fragile and heavy materials. Thanks to this, engineers and archaeologists are discovering how the blocks really fit together, how they worked the joining systems and what techniques allowed such a gigantic structure to be built more than two thousand years ago. Investigations have also revealed that the lighthouse used advanced assembly systems with clamps and huge interconnected blocks, something that helps explain how it was able to survive so many centuries against earthquakes and storms. The modern Mediterranean like ancient earthquakes. Archaeological work is also carried out in an increasingly complicated environment. The waters off Alexandria have very poor visibilityare full of pollution and suffer a progressive rise in sea level while the coast itself continues to slowly sink. The researchers they warn that the Mediterranean is warming faster than many other regions of the planet and that the accumulation of waste and sediments makes underwater documentation tasks increasingly difficult. Paradoxically, while technology allows one of the greatest wonders of Antiquity to be digitally reconstructed, the environment where its physical remains remain becomes more hostile and vulnerable year after year. One of the Seven Wonders reappearing. The most striking thing of all is that the project has already managed to dismantle many historical doubts about him Alexandria Lighthouse. Researchers now believe that the ancient chronicles probably they did not exaggerate: The tower really must have been as colossal and advanced as classical authors described. The recovered blocks, some almost impossible in size even for modern engineering, are allowing locate monumental entrancesplatforms and structural elements with unprecedented precision. Little by little, under the waters of Alexandria, one of the most famous constructions in all of human history is ceasing to be a myth and once again taking on a real form. Image | PHAROS, SciVi 3D studio, Roland Unger In Xataka | Some 5,000-year-old tombs went unnoticed for millennia. Until we look from the sky In Xataka | The “Gate of Hell” has been burning in the middle of the Turkmenistan desert for half a century. And now it’s fading

The almadraba has a reputation for being an ancient, artisanal and sustainable art. But behind it lies one of the wildest industrializations of the sea

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The Phoenicians arrived on the coasts of Andalusia about 3,000 years ago looking for gold, silver and copper. They stayed for everything else. By the 5th century BC, the factories on the coast of the Strait were already shipping amphorae and amphorae filled with salted tuna throughout the Mediterranean. As we believe, that was when the almadraba was invented. Or so we think. It’s only half the story. The other half is what happens with the tunas that, despite falling into the codend, do not die that day. Many of these tunas (the smallest ones) end up captured and, while still alive, are transferred to marine cages where they remain for up to four months feeding on fish (sardines, mackerel, horse mackerel or chinarros) until they reach the ideal level of fat required by the market. In contrast to the three-millennial trap that enters the codend “with blood and fire” and sacrifices the tuna (to deep-freeze it), there is another that borders on the world of aquaculture, de-seasonalizes the supply and improves the quality of the product. The second, without a doubt, is the most unknown. And that fattening system images They are spectacular. But it’s a logical move. After all, Cádiz traps only catch fish in a short window of time. Normally between the end of April and mid-June. By reserving the smallest tuna and baiting it until September, the product can be sold much more expensive. And it is the only reason to do so because the feed conversion ratio of bluefin tuna in cages is the highest of any species raised or fattened in captivity. While our tunas need between 20 and 30 kilos of oily fish to gain a kilo (20:1-30:1), salmon only need one kilo and pork three. It is not without problems, of course. We already know that filling the sea with fish farms It is a huge source of ecological problems. It is true that it has had a brutal effect on the democratization of fish consumption, but the cost is decimating wild fish populations. However, the case of tuna is different. Its impact on the populations of oily fish that serve as food is great, of course. But it is still small, simply because we have not learned to raise it from scratch: you have to fish to fatten it up. If the efforts of institutions like the CSIC are successful, the Strait will have a problem that will be counted in thousands of tons of exports. Image | SLADE | Big Dodzy In Xataka | Spain is going to continue fishing for eels until we have no more eels to catch

The first telecommunications network in history arose in ancient Syria, 3,800 years before the internet

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Nowadays it is difficult to think of anything other than being able to communicate with anyone instantly, no matter how far away they are. As a millennial, I have lived in the era when sending messages continuously was not common: SMS was not free and forced you to economize on language. And of course, before there were telephone calls, the reception of which today causes fear among youth. We can go back in time to the telegraph or the imperial postal networks and even the discreet carrier pigeons, which have been helping humanity communicate from the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations. A recent post from the historian and professor of history at the University of Central Florida Tiffany Earley-Spadoni published within a volume on global perspectives of warscapes brings to the fore the first telecommunications network documented both textually and archaeologically 3,800 years ago: a system of beacons to launch an SOS. The discovery. A cuneiform chart excavated at Mari, eastern Syria, dating to 1800 BC is the oldest known historical evidence of signaling using fiery beacons. But we also know what he said: an official named Bannum writes to the king while traveling to the north of the region with concern after observing the successive lighting of bonfires near Terqa and requests reinforcements. That lighting was not accidental: it was a signal of imminent danger on the border, an early warning system for possible attacks on their cities. Early-Spadoni refers to this system as a “fortified regional network,” or FRN for short. A little context. This documentation is framed within the Syrian Middle Bronze Age, a territory of cities – states in constant conflict. Taking the city meant dealing a blow to the rival and keeping its wealth, hence the siege was the star attack. But conquering a territory was much easier than administering it. Thus, these states had great ambitions, but lacked the infrastructure to govern themselves from a distance. So to better defend themselves and control the territories they used two systems: large walls surrounding the cities and a network of forts, towers and guarded roads in rural areas. This second structure is the seed of the development of empires. Why is it important. Bannum’s letter is the oldest known historical testimony of the use of an intentionally designed telecommunications network with shared infrastructure, nodes, and protocol. Do not confuse with communication methods, since smoke or drums are prehistoric and undatable. But it is also key for civilizations insofar as it allowed us to go from “presumptive states” (which conquers territories it cannot govern) to develop real and lasting territorial empires: without this infrastructure of communication and control, the size of the empires would have been simply ungovernable. How it worked. With a physical structure made up of fortresses, forts, watchtowers and wall segments and with an operation protocol. It essentially served to control routes, resupply military personnel, transmit information and track movements in the territory. The physical hierarchy of its infrastructure was distributed along roads and river crossings spaced at regular intervals of about 20 kilometers to ensure visibility between nodes. The large fortresses were the main nodes with smaller forts between them, with watchtowers for signaling to reinforce points that were difficult to see and segments of walls in strategic areas. The system operated continuously: with smoke during the day, fire at night, and had permanent reserves of wood. Each signal was known by all the nodes, so that when a beacon, the signal traveled through the nodes until it reached the center in a relatively short time. Speed ​​was its great asset and its handicap was how limited it was: it could only transmit simple messages. The early “internet”. Comparing it with the current Internet is not just a rhetorical question: FRNs share with the Internet several of its principles, such as distributed nodes, redundancy to avoid failures, protocols agreed in advance and a topology to maximize connectivity between distant points. A before and after to build empires. This system did not disappear with Mari. For more than a thousand years, each new empire that emerged in the Near East encountered these networks, recognized them as a valuable structure, and implemented them to suit their needs. The Neo-Assyrian integrated them into walled cities and in parallel developed a horse relay system for more complex and confidential messages, impossible to transmit with the original infrastructure. The Urartian Empire made them the organizing principle of an entire empire. And the Persian Empire took the model to its maximum expression with the royal road that Herodotus describes in his Histories: forts at regular intervals, relay of messages and archaeologically confirmed fire beacons in Anatolia. Earley-Spadoni’s conclusion is that without these infrastructures, the largest empires of the ancient world would not have been able to manage themselves. In Xataka | From when a monstrous telecommunications tower and its more than 4,000 cables blocked the sun from the inhabitants of Stockholm In Xataka | In 1901, a Spanish man had one of the ideas of the century: invent the remote control before television Cover | حسن and Ezra Jeffrey-Comeau

Mexico wants to shield the ancient Mayan city of Toniná at all costs. So he has expropriated more than nine hectares

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Maybe not as well known as Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza or even the neighbor Palenquebut Toniná It is one of the great archaeological treasures of Mexico. The necropolis experienced its heyday between 600 and 900 AD and today it is preserved as one of the most fascinating complexes of the Mayan area and pre-Hispanic urbanism. In fact, it is crowned by a unique pyramidal structure in the region that is taller than the famous pyramid of the sun of Teotihuacan. Therefore, to guarantee its conservation, the Mexican Government has just made a radical decision: expropriate 9.2 hectares of the environment so that they become directly dependent on the National Institute of Anthropology (INAH). What has happened? That Mexico has just shown that it is willing to pull expropriation decree to protect your assets. And he has also done it in a practical way. The Executive led by Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that the National Institute of Anthropology and History has “taken possession” of a 9.22-h property in the vicinity of the Toniná site, in the state of Chiapas. The curious thing is how that land has been obtained, until recently in private hands. The transfer has been possible thanks to a decree that gave the green light to the sale in favor of the INAH. “The action arises from a cause of public utility, promoted in December 2025 by Culture,” clarify the authorities. Why have they done it? The Executive’s objective is twofold: to facilitate the conservation and research of the environment. In the words of INAH itself, the idea is to “guarantee the optimal conditions” of the site. “Toniná is an essential part of the living history of Chiapas and Mexico. This decree protects an asset of the nation and contributes to the exercise of cultural rights through access to knowledge and historical memory,” reasons Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Secretary of Culture. The leader insists that with the measure the State reinforces its capacity to “preserve heritage, ensure its management with technical criteria and sustain conservation, restoration and research tasks.” From now on, the INAH will expand its capacity to monitor, care for and study the ancient Mayan city. Why is it important? For several reasons. Beyond the legal formula used or its advantages to protect, conserve and study the site, the measure is interesting because Mexico wants to take advantage of it to promote Toniná. “In the archaeological zone, a comprehensive reactivation program will be implemented that will create a structured route for its eventual reopening,” keep it up the INAH. In fact, one of the objectives is to promote “responsible tourism.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. Is Toniná so important? Yes. And that is another reason why the recovery of the nine hectares has generated so much expectation. Located on the border between the Mayan highlands and the lowlands, the inhabitants of ancient Toniná left a fascinating acropolis, with overlapping platforms and a pyramidal structure that archaeologists considered “unique” in the Mayan world. In fact, it surpasses in height the famous Pyramid of the Sun of Teotihuacán, 65 meters. “The richness of this archaeological zone makes it comparable to other large sites in Chiapas, such as Palenque. Its heyday goes from the year 600 to 900, within the Classic period, and it was the last witness to the decline of the so-called Old Mayan Empire,” explains the INAH. The most famous governor in its history was Tzots Choj (‘Tiger-Bat’) and its greatest archaeological treasure is offered by its acropolis and central plaza. In it we find a staircase of 260 steps, the enormous pyramidal structure and a labyrinth of temples, palaces and roads. Experts have also located an altar for sacrifices and spaces to play ball. How long have we known her? The first to tell us about Toniná was Brother Jacinto Garridoin the 17th century, but the site has continued to fascinate experts since then. During the 19th century, expeditions continued and throughout the 20th century (especially between the 1970s and 1980s) excavations intensified. It was then when the studies and conservation work carried out by the INAH were launched, which has allowed its secrets to be discovered. Despite years of study, the archaeological institute trust in which there are still surprises: “Toniná still keeps many secrets that will have to be known.” Images | Wikipedia and SC (INAH) In Xataka | The Mayan Train has become a nightmare for Mexico: what seemed like a great plan has run into justice

The 2026 Minotaur Prize takes a turn towards dark fantasy in Ancient Egypt with ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’

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This year the Prize celebrates a very special edition: twenty years since what has ended up becoming the most important award for fantasy literature in the Spanish language began to be awarded. This year the winner has been Africa Vázquez, who proposes with his novelto ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’ a dark fantasy story set in pharaonic Egypt that will go on sale next March 25. 216 manuscripts have competed for this edition of the award, mostly from Spain, in search of the 6,000 euro prize of which the award consists. The Minotaur is an award of international scope and this year proposals have come from countries throughout Latin America, especially Argentina and Mexico. Even so, the winner África Vázquez is from Zaragoza. She is not new to literary awards: her first novel already won, when she was only 17 years old, the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Prize. Since then he has published more than thirty books between Spain and Latin America, and has won various literary awards, including the Kelvin 505 at the Celsius 232 festival. In this work he has opted for travel to the remote past, with the story of a embalmer embarked on revenge which will take her to places as inhospitable as Waset, City of a Hundred Gates and capital of the Ta-Mri, with the intention of infiltrating the court of Pharaoh Nekht-en-sen. In ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’ you will discover that the secrets hidden in the heart of the Nile will not only shake the foundations of an empire. The earth rots, plagues come, and the secret behind it all seems to lie beyond the land of the living, in the depths of the Underworld. We are facing an epic and dark mythological fantasy story in a reinvented Egypt, where a priestess of the goddess Isis will plot revenge of ancient proportions. A dazzling journey The jury, made up of Sabino Cabeza (winner of the previous year), Laura Díaz (literary popularizer and writer), Fernando Bonete (university professor, author and prescriber), Judit Bertran (cultural journalist and editor of El Periódico) and Francesc Gascó (doctor in Paleontology and cultural popularizer) have praised Vázquez’s book. According to the jury, it offers a “millennial Egypt So carefully detailed you can even smell the embalmers’ ointment and the perfume of the lotuses of the Nile” Vázquez stated upon receiving the award that “in my novel I have poured all the passion I have felt for Ancient Egypt since my parents, at the age of thirteen, gave me the immense gift of taking me and my older sister to discover the wonders of the Nile. Later, when I had turned twenty-seven, I returned to sail through those ancient waters to receive another gift that would change my destiny.” The author assures that “perhaps that is why in ‘The Shadow of the Black Lotus’, a novel in which death and darkness are so present, there continues to be a light and a life that refuses to go out.” In Xataka | Conan has become an archetype and has survived for decades thanks to an unusual strategy: refusing to evolve

Countries are trying to prevent the accumulation of wealth of technological millionaires. Ancient Rome tried it too

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The concentration of wealth in a few hands that we see today in technological billionaires is not a new phenomenon. More than two thousand years ago, the Ancient Rome faced exactly the same dilemma that worries today to governments around the world: a few rich people accumulated land and resources, while the majority of citizens became impoverished to the point of bordering on misery. A young politician named Tiberius Sempronius Graceither He thought he found a solution to redistribute the wealth accumulated by the Roman patricians: his idea cost him his life. In the middle of the second century BC, after destroying Carthage and Corinth, Rome had become the dominant power of the Mediterranean. However, this expansion it didn’t make everyone rich equally. For the humblest Roman peasants, it brought a devastating social crisis. The small landowners, who for centuries had cultivated their lands and served in the Roman legions, were displaced by large estates exploited with slave labor brought from the new conquered territories. The long military campaigns had prevented the soldiers peasants return in time to harvest their lands, which affected the economies of their families. Furthermore, upon their return they discovered that their lands had been expropriated by millionaire aristocrats from Rome. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchusgrandson of Scipio Africanus, the general that defeated to the Carthaginian Hannibaland heir to one of the most powerful families in Rome, was guaranteed a brilliant political future. However, in the year 133 BC, being elected tribune of the plebs, he decided to propose an agrarian reform with which he attempted to redistribute the enormous fortunes that Roman landowners had accumulated. Something similar to what is trying to make California and other countries all over the world. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus With this measure, Gracchus was directly confronting his own people since he himself came from a wealthy family. Its law established that no citizen could own more than 500 iugera (about 125 hectares) of public land, the so-called ager publicus. The plots that exceed that limit will be expropriated and handed over to landless peasants. A measure that, de facto, ended with the large estates in the hands of the richest romans. The objective of the measure was twofold: to restore economic solvency to the Roman people and to ensure that Rome had enough citizens with assets to nourish its legions, since only the owners They could serve as soldiers. Making friends among the richest According to the ancient sources of Plutarch, written between the years 96 AD and 117 AD, Tiberius did not seek to start a revolution against the rich, but to restore old republican laws that had fallen into disuse. To defend his reform, Tiberius gave speeches in front of the impoverished people of Rome. In one of his most famous, which was collected by Plutarchthe young tribune declared: “Their generals deceive them when, in battle, they encourage them to fight for the temples of their gods and for the tombs of their fathers. This is because, of a large number of Romans, not one has his own domestic altar or family tomb. They fight and die to feed the opulence and luxury of others, and, when they claim to be masters of the entire world, they do not even own a piece of land.” The Senate, dominated by large landowners, tried to block the reform by all means. They persuaded another tribune named Octavius ​​to veto the proposal, but Tiberius responded with a bold and unprecedented maneuver: he called for the assembly to remove Octavius ​​from office for acting against the interests of the people. The reform was finally approved and applied by distributing the large estates of the landowners among the Roman peasants. However, when Tiberius attempted to run for a second term as tribune, a practice then considered contrary to Roman tradition, the aristocracy decided he had gone too far. According to the historical documentationduring the elections in the Capitol, a group of senators led by the maximum pontiff Scipio Násica, a relative of Tiberius himself, burst in with a group of followers armed with clubs and with the legs of chairs torn from the Curia. In the sacred place, where swords were not allowed, They beat Tiberius to death and about 300 of his followers. His body was thrown into the Tiber River without allowing his family to bury him. Death of Tiberius Gracchus Ten years later, in 123 BC, Tiberius’ brother, Gaius Sempronius Gracchustook up the cause started by his brother with an even more ambitious program. Caius approved the Lex Frumentariawhich forced the State to distribute wheat among the plebs at prices below the market, laying the foundations of the food subsidy system that would last for centuries. He also proposed extending Roman citizenship to the Italic peoples who fought in Rome’s wars but did not enjoy its benefits. The Senate used populist tactics, warning that Italian foreigners would reduce aid to Roman citizens, and when Caius lost popular supportwas pursued to the Aventine Hill near Rome, where he ordered his faithful slave Philocrates to assassinate him. Nearly 3,000 of his supporters died with him. The legacy that survived violence Although the Senate murdered both brothers, it could not erase their legacy. The reforms that the Gracchi had proposed would finally be implemented decades later by order of Julius Caesar, who had a powerful army that protected him from suffering the same fate. The historians Plutarch and Appian left record of what happened with the Gracchus brothers centuries later, both agreed to portray Tiberius as a politician with solid ideas who looked to Rome’s past to find solutions to the problems suffered by his people. Paradoxically, although the story of the Gracchus brothers happened more than 2,000 years ago, we could find very similar references today with just a quick glance at the news. In Xataka | Mark Zuckerberg is going to change the California sun for Miami. You have 11 billion reasons to do it. Image | Wikimedia Commons (Lodovico Pogliaghi, Guillaume … Read more

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