Archaeologists

archaeologists have hacked their way to a Mayan city hidden for centuries in the jungle

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They have baptized him ‘Minanbe’ (“there is no way”in Yucatecan Mayan) and the truth is that few names would better describe the pre-Columbian site that archaeologists have just discovered in the middle of the Campeche jungle, in Mexico. After traveling kilometers and kilometers using machetes and with the help of quadsunder the scorching sun of the Yucatán, a team of researchers led by the Slovenian Ivan Sprajc has reached a mayan city forgotten that, according to its first observations, must have played a relevant role during the Late Classica period spanning 600 and 900 AD Then the jungle devoured the settlement for more than a thousand years, a long period of oblivion that has just ended. What has happened? It is not strange that the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico stirred the waters of pre-Columbian archeology with important discoveries. In recent years, however, there have been few as fascinating as the one just presented in Campeche. And not only because of its reach. The location and intra-history of the discovery of the ancient Mayan city of Minanbé is so surprising that two facts are known to understand its scope: it took more than a decade of work and traveling several kilometers of jungle to reach it. Why’s that? Because Minanbé was in an inaccessible place. And in this case we can use the word with all of the law. The city was “camouflaged among the jungle tangle of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve,” in words from INAH itself, who remembers that the archaeologists and technical staff of Ivan Šprajc’s team found it so difficult to get there that they decided to name their discovery with two words from the Yucatecan Mayan: mina’an (“there is not”) and bej (“path”). For good connoisseurs there are too many words. To reach the old settlement, located in Campeche, they had to make their way as best they could. First they traveled along an old forest path, advancing aboard quads. When the jungle became too thick for these vehicles, they had no choice but to advance on foot, clearing brush with the help of machetes and sinking their boots into the mud. “They opened a gap with the edge of a machete for five kilometers,” precise the institute. How did they know it was there? With the help of technology. Archaeologists identified the ruins thanks to aerial scans made with LiDAR, a tool which allows researchers to identify constructs impossible to observe at first glance through the vegetation. The first clues were actually obtained more than a decade ago. “In this field season the team once again entered the northern sector of the reserve to carry out a superficial survey of a site west of Chactún, a governing center reported by this same initiative. 13 years ago and for which they had airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data,” explains the INAH. The images showed a settlement of about 15 hectares, but the most complicated task remained and has now finally begun: verifying these indications “at ground level.” A lot of causality, right? That experts were scarce in that area of ​​Campeche was not a coincidence either. Šprajc, attached to the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, has been dedicated for decades to the study of the Central Maya Lowlands, “a fossilized archaeological landscape that was the habitat of between nine and eleven million people during the Late Classic period,” recalls the INAH. The truth is that Šprajc I intuited that the jungle could hide an undiscovered treasure. To begin with, there were no roads leading to the ruins. Not even the dirt trails opened by the logging industry decades ago. And although that complicated the team’s mobility, it was also a “good sign.” “Compared to other places where we have done surface tours, access here was much more difficult. However, in the last three years it is the first site we found intact. “There are no looting coves,” adds the researcher Slovenian. “It was a big surprise.” What is Minanbe like? If there is another word that defines Minanbé, besides “inaccessible,” it is “promising.” When the team arrived at the site they found “an urban nucleus” with squares, palatial and religious buildings, terraces and hydraulic pipelines. The ‘jewel in the crown’ is a pyramid-shaped temple more than 13 meters high and a style reminiscent of the architecture of Río Becidentified in dozens of sites and which is distinguished, among other things, by the complexes with towers. The experts stand out especially its masonry and the smooth panels of the dated, a steep staircase and moldings. Vitan Vujanović, one of the participants in the expedition, recognized It was recently the first time that he had the opportunity to record “a more or less well preserved temple and a stele still with glyphs.” One in particular stands out that represents a decapitation scene. Do we know anything else? Yes. The researchers took hundreds of photographs that have allowed them to create three-dimensional models of 14 altars and stelae, including the piece that shows how one individual wields an ax to decapitate another. These recreations help us decipher the engravings despite the erosion and have shown that this particular stele has a temporal reference that places it in 849 AD. “It is an important key because we can think that the entire set of monuments or some were erected for that moment of the Terminal Classic, close to the abandonment of the sites in the region, which happened in the 10th century AD,” comment another participant in the project, Octavio Esparza. The monuments have led experts to two other conclusions. First, Minanbé could have been an enclave with some political powernot a minor city. Second, over time groups from outside were able to arrive in the city and deliberately alter some monuments. Images | INAH-Vitan Vujanović and Daniel Santaella In Xataka | We had always thought that the Mayans disappeared due to an environmental “apocalypse.” Turns out we were wrong

archaeologists have discovered an unexpected link between petroglyphs from Galicia and Scandinavia

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If you travel to Galicia or the north of Portugal and observe carefully some of its petroglyphs From the Bronze Age you will find representations of ships. Back in the day, thousands of years ago, someone carved them into the rock to show the silhouette of ships, sometimes with decorations, crew members, oars and even something resembling sails. The really surprising thing about these pieces is that, deep down, they have little of ‘surprising’ about them. In the southern region of Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden) archaeologists have documented thousands of engravings similar, which leaves one question: How the hell do you explain this coincidence? Now at last we have answers. Connecting dots. Recently a group of researchers led by Marta Díaz-Guardaminofrom the University of Durham, embarked on a peculiar project: analyzing the rock art samples located in a dozen deposits distributed throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, more specifically in Galicia and the north of Portugal. They then compared them with other engravings located in Denmark and Sweden. It was not a capricious or random job. All the pieces shared a common link: they showed representations of ships. What did they find out? That beyond representing boats, the two samples (both the Scandinavian and the Iberian) have certain details in common, “design characteristics” that are repeated despite the hundreds of kilometers that separate Sweden from the Galician coast. Which is it? The archaeologists mainly identified decorations located at the ends of the boats with birds or ‘S’-shaped layouts, as well as representations of rigging, oars and sails. “The study identifies important typological and iconographic parallels between images from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Nordic ones,” they detail in the article that have been published in Plos One with their conclusions and in which they highlight the existence of “numerous and surprising” coincidences between the samples. “While several of the carved images of ships identified at coastal and river sites on the Atlantic coast of the peninsula are very rudimentary and difficult to interpret, there is no doubt that there are parallels with ships that can be dated within Scandinavian chronologies. In addition to the decorations on the ends of the ships (such as birds and ‘S’ drawings), they include shapes similar to ‘mushrooms’, ‘cult axes’ or ‘sails’ located in the center of the ship or that decorate the ends or knobs of bronze knives”. Old-fashioned globalization. With his analysis, Díaz-Guardamino pursued two objectives: to understand whether the engravings were related to each other and, if so, what that tells us about the Bronze Age. Now researchers believe they have valuable proof that “ideas and technologies were shared across Europe” millennia ago through maritime connections and cultural ties. Not only that. They believe that the engravings reveal something to us much more important: that ships were not a simple means of transportation with which to cross seas. They also had a “symbolic importance linked to rituals and beliefs.” “The shared iconography supports hypotheses about long-distance connectivity and maritime trade networks in Atlantic Europe, particularly regarding the movement of metals such as copper and tin,” abound the authors of the article before remembering that almost all the deposits in Iberia share another peculiarity: they are close to navigable waterways, whether rivers or the sea. Specifically, they have studied carvings from Viana, Caminha, Monterrei and Oia. Experienced sailors. In the opinion of experts, the “high level of technical detail” they have documented provides a new perspective on navigation capacity in the Bronze Age. Especially since in the engravings you can see boats that include oars, crew, masts, rigging and curved hulls, a detail that supports the hypothesis that the use of ships with sail was widespread on the Atlantic coast. The presence of cosmological symbols also tells us about a “shared concern” for solar mythology and travel. Fine-tuning the chronological shot. The research is not interesting only for what it reveals about the parallels between both regions. It is also because it helps us better understand the Iberian petroglyphs. More than 20,000 representations of Bronze Age ships have been discovered in Scandinavia, but in the northwest of the peninsula experts have struggled to date them. Thanks to their comparison and examination with high-resolution laser scanning, three-dimensional photogrammetry, RTI and GIS, the researchers believe that the Galicia and northern Portugal samples can be dated to the Late Bronze Age, around 1300-800 BC, a framework consistent with known Scandinavian maritime technologies. “Sea travel covered great distances and helped share cultural ideas across thousands of miles.” For researchers, it does not matter whether the Iberian petroglyphs were recorded by local sailors who assimilated foreign naval technology or were created by navigators who came from abroad and were passing through what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. The key, in his view, is that coastal communities “were actively involved in extensive long-distance maritime networks.” Images | Plos One-Marta Díaz-Guardamino et al. In Xataka | “For 2,000 years they have been inaccessible. Finally we can read them”: archaeologists now know how to decipher the Herculaneum papyri

archaeologists already know how to decipher the Herculaneum papyri

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When Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago erupted It devastated the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia, sowing the region with chaos and death. It also left us with a macabre ‘snapshot’ of what life was like in Roman villas in the 1st century AD, a photo preserved under layers of volcanic ash. Among them, centuries ago, archaeologists found the ‘Villa of the Papyri’a library located in Herculaneum with hundreds of ancient papyri. Any historian’s dream. The problem is that their scrolls were charred, reduced to blackened cylinders seemingly impossible to read. Apparently. Thanks to technology We have managed to read a complete one without having to unroll it. A trip to 79 AD We do not know exactly in what month Vesuvius erupted (we have always believed that it was in August, but recent studies suggest that it could have been in autumn or even winter). What we do know is that in 79 AD the Campania volcano unleashed chaos in the region, unleashing a rain of ash and lapilli that swept away neighboring Pompeii, Stabia and Herculaneum. When the archaeologists began to excavate among the remains of this last Roman villa, in the 18th centurythey got a surprise: they discovered papyri and more papyri. Around 1,800. The remains of an ancient library full of works by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus of Gadara and other authors, a priceless source of texts on ancient wisdom, poetry, prose… The problem is that a good part of this bibliographical treasure was illegible. The scrolls had stood the test of centuries, but the eruption of Vesuvius had reduced them to charred scrolls. “Extremely delicate”. As they explain From the Archaeological Park of Herculaneum itself, the Villa of the Papyri offers a unique, but frustrating treasure. Scholars have known for centuries that they have at their disposal papyri full of knowledge as valuable as it is inaccessible. Any attempt to unfold one of the scrolls carried the risk of turning it into ash. “The scrolls are extremely delicate. To avoid the risk of destroying them, the unrolling and deciphering process is very complex,” recognize from the park. They know what they are talking about. In the 19th century or even already well into the 20thin the 60s and 80s, there were experts who seriously damaged some papyri when manipulating them, ruining part of the documents. Fortunately, things have changed and what was impossible decades ago is no longer impossible today. “For almost two millennia, many of these texts have been physically preserved, but have remained intellectually inaccessible,” explains Brent Sealesfrom the University of Kentucky. “Today, after years of interdisciplinary work with advanced imaging techniques, AI, academic research and an innovation competition, we can finally read each other.” Vesuvius Challenge. In 2023, building on the work of Seales and researchers at the University of Kentucky with the machine learning and X-ray scanning, an international call was launched that challenged engineers, scientists and archaeologists around the world to find new ways to solve the mystery and decipher the Herculaneum scrolls once and for all without having to open (and destroy) them. The initiative was named ‘Vesuvius Challenge’ and was accompanied by the promise of juicy financial rewards. It worked. “A global community came together to solve the problem using computer vision, machine learning and a lot of work. Finally, after 275 years, we can begin to read the scrolls,” explains the organization, which at the beginning of 2024 was already celebrating the first progress of the initiative. Now, just three years later, they just presented what is probably his greatest achievement, a milestone unimaginable to experts in the 1960s. What have they achieved? Unroll and read the entire contents of a scroll known to experts as PHerc. 1667one of the pieces from the Villa of the Papyri preserved in Naples and which until now had been completely restored. What’s more, what we have today is only a damaged part of the original manuscript, a scroll about eight centimeters high and two centimeters wide. There are testimonies from the 18th century that they describe it as a relatively intact papyrus (beyond being burned), but attempts to decipher it since then caused it to split and lose its outer layers. Do it without doing it. What is really fascinating is that researchers have managed to reveal almost 1.5 meters of text distributed in 20 columns without the need to physically unfold the papyrus or deteriorate (even more) the roll. Unlike researchers in the 60s and 80s, they have used two great tools: digital scanning and AI. Thanks to them they have managed to read one of the scrolls from the Herculaneum library from beginning to end, a milestone which leaves two great news. First, we have been able to read a document that no one has looked at for almost 2,000 years. Second, we have a system that can help us continue advancing in the deciphering of other files. In fact, 70 columns of another text (PHerc. 172) preserved in Oxford have also been recovered and complete books of the philosopher Philodemus have been identified. “This scroll was considered illegible when it was partially opened in the 1980s. While some single letters could be made out, the overlapping layers hid the writing and the scroll was assigned a zero readability score. But now, thanks to virtual unrolling, we can follow coherent reasoning across multiple columns. This is a radical change,” celebrate Federica Nicolardi, professor of papyrology at the University of Naples. Surprise find. Efforts to decipher the PHerc scroll. 1667 have been worth it. And not only because of the historical milestone it represents. Its content has surprised experts. To start with its age. The calligraphy and internal references have led experts to think that it dates from the 2nd century BC or even the late 3rd century BC, which would make it “one of the oldest scrolls in the collection” discovered in Herculaneum, explains Nicolardi. Experts have also learned that the scroll contains a philosophical treatise on … Read more

Archaeologists have found the bodies of two women embracing in a medieval tomb. Now they are a huge mystery

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There are eternal hugs, there are mysterious hugs, there are hugs with so much sentimental charge that only those who melt into them understand them and then there are hugs like that of the two corpses from the Middle Ages. located a few years ago next to Opole Cathedralin southern Poland, which add up to all these characteristics (and some more). When archaeologists discovered their intertwined bodies underground in 2023, they began to ask questions that they hoped to resolve by analyzing DNA samples. They have achieved it… halfway. Experts now better understand who the bodies belonged to, but are even more confused about how to interpret their eternal embrace. In a place in Poland… To understand the mystery you have to go back three years ago, between May 2022 and November 2023when a group of archaeologists began to excavate around the cathedral of Opolea small city in Upper Silesia (Poland) located on the banks of the Oder River. The origins of temple They date back to the 11th century (in the 13th it was expanded thanks to the support of the local nobility) and researchers hoped that their tombs would help them better understand the funerary rituals of the time. In total they discovered 46 burialsalthough there was one in particular that caught his attention: a grave that contained two skeletons, baptized ‘nº31′ and ’32’. What was so special about them? To begin with, his tomb was located in the northern area of ​​the cathedral, near the walls and foundations of the temple. That is relevant in itself because not everyone could hope to have their remains rest in a place like that. When both bodies were buried, in the Middle Ages, the burial areas so close to the consecrated temple and its relics were usually reserved for the most powerful and wealthy people. The bones fell apart 154cm deep and were very deteriorated by the passage of time, which greatly complicated their identification. The reason: they were once deposited in the ground, only with shrouds and on stretchers, so parts of the skeleton have been lost and others are fragmented. An enigmatic position. Although the above is interesting, there was another reason that made archaeologists interested in bodies numbers 31 and 32: their posture. The first skeleton (31) reveals that the body was buried face up, in the position in which the deceased were usually buried. The 32nd, however, was lying on his side, leaning on his side, with one leg half bent and his right arm stretched under his partner’s skull. The composition is as clear in 2026 as it probably was in the 13th century: both corpses they are hugged in a position that denotes intimacy. Add and continue. Those in Opole are not the first centuries-old burial sites in which we have found hugging bodies. In 2007 We saw something similar in Mantua, where archaeologists also discovered the remains of two bodies buried 5,000 years ago in an intertwined position. And that is just one of several examples. We located another one in 2015 in the Peloponnese, where a couple from 3,800 BC was found buried in a similar pose. And what does it mean? The big question. The most logical thing is to assume that the two people buried in Opole maintained such a close relationship that those who survived them believed that it was most appropriate to bury them together, in an intimate position, with their bodies intertwined. The key is… Why? Were they family? Did they have a romantic relationship? It is not a simple question because by asking it from the 21st century we run the risk of trying to answer it with a presentist approachbased on our own vision of the world. The DNA wild card. To clear up unknowns, a group of researchers turned to DNA analysis. Their goal was to subject the bones unearthed next to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Opole to an archaeogenetic examination in search of some answers: What age and sex were both deceased? Were they family? Maybe they were father and son, brothers, an uncle and his nephew? The results have just been published in an article published in the magazine Archaeological Science: Reports and they are surprising. Although the bones have degraded and do not allow tooth enamel to be analyzed, a study carried out by experts from the Kiel University Yes, it has revealed three clues. First, the bodies belonged to two people who were around 40 years old. Second, both correspond to women. And third, there was no relationship between them. There is a link, but… what? “Our DNA analysis shows that the two women were not closely related by blood, but genetics cannot tell us how they were socially or emotionally connected,” recognize to The Country Joanna Romeyer-Dherbey, one of the researchers who signed the paper and who highlights how “extraordinary” it is that centuries later archaeogenetics can reveal to us the secrets of two people buried together. If they were not direct relatives, and in view of how they have been found buried, does that mean that the two women from Opole were lovers? Are we looking at a homosexual couple buried together and embracing in the middle of the Middle Ages? Researchers cannot rule it out. Nor affirm it “with confidence”. Theorize yes, but with caution. What your article does insist on is the call for caution: “Archaeologists should avoid projecting modern cultural categories onto past practices when material evidence does not distinguish between multiple plausible explanations.” After all, both women could be lovers, but also friends, relatives without a biological link (through adoption, for example) or even members of the same religious community. To put it another way, what if they had tragically died at the same time and the community decided to bury them together? Are there more clues? Yes. One. and it is fundamental. The bodies have not only appeared in the same grave, in a position that denotes an embrace. … Read more

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

Archaeologists opened a 2,600-year-old Etruscan tomb and found something surprising: four intact corpses

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Imagine moving a huge slab of stone and discovering that time stopped behind it 2,600 years ago: an intact Etruscan burial chamber, just as they left it when they sealed it. The scene seems straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, but no: it happened in Lazio, about 70 kilometers northwest of Rome and behind is the archeology team It was that of the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project, Baylor University in Texas and the Italian authorities. The discovery. The tomb is located in the necropolis of San Giuliano in the Marturanum park and what is truly striking is not that it is Etruscan, but that it is the only one in the area that has not been looted. In a region historically plagued by looters, finding a virgin funerary context is simply a statistical anomaly. The unboxing of the grave goods. In the tomb were the remains of four individuals arranged in carved stone funerary beds and their preliminary analysis suggests that the buried people could be two couples. In addition, there is an entire funerary inventory that, due to its richness and variety, suggests individuals of high social status, although anthropological and isotopic analyzes have not yet confirmed their rank. Thus, more than 100 funerary objects appeared almost intact, with an exceptional state of conservation: 74 ceramic vessels, iron weapons, bronze objects, silver hair reels or a bronze fibula still with remains of tissue attached. Of all these pieces, the discovery of a vase located at the entrance to the tombwhich was possibly part of the funerary rite prior to sealing. Why is it important. Beyond the state of conservation, Dr. Bárbara Barbaro, director of archeology at the Soprintendenza, synthesized in a statement: “it gives us a complete vision of life through the prism of the funerary ritual”, something practically impossible from a looted tomb. A kind of time capsule through which to learn about the life, death and funeral rituals of the time. Thus, based on the skeletons, the scientific team can analyze through DNA tests the link between individuals, the remains of tissues and objects help to understand habits and fashions of the time and, in addition, San Giuliano is a clear example of how the Etruscans transformed a rocky landscape into monumental architecture. Context. It is a sealed cave chamber tomb dated to the end of the 7th century BC, in the final phase of the Orientalizing periodone of the most flourishing phases of the Etruscan civilization. Since 2016, the research team has documented There were more than 600 Etruscan tombs in the area, but all the previous ones had been looted. In fact, the rest was plundered since the Roman occupation in the 3rd century BC. On an architectural level, these tombs have been carved directly into the rockin the shape of a small house with a gable roof, a characteristic design of Etruscan funerary architecture. Pending subjects. The field investigation has already concluded, but remains pending the essential to understand everything: the study and analysis of archaeological data. Thus, the genetic and isotopic analyzes of the bone remains will be decisive in knowing the origin, diet and family ties between the buried people. The trousseau found could also shed light on the patterns of production and circulation of objects in Etruria at the time, as well as on the fine chronology of funerary habits and customs. In Xataka | Solving the mysterious origin of the Etruscans: what we know about the people with the most unknowns in Europe In Xataka | A cargo sunk in a Swiss lake 2,000 years ago confirms it: the Roman legions did not deprive themselves of anything Cover | Tomba dei Rilievi, Alessandro Antonelli

The Zapotecs have been fascinating archaeologists for years. A 1,400-year-old tomb in Mexico has revealed how they viewed death

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“It is the most relevant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico.” Who is speaking It is Claudia Sheinbaum, president of the country, and although it is not unusual for authorities to resort to superlatives when presenting historical findings, in this case the enthusiasm of the Mexican leader seems more than justified. After all, it is not every day that we find jewels like the one that the INAH just located in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca: a tomb from 1,400 years ago that promises to reveal new secrets about one of the most fascinating pre-Hispanic cultures of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. Who is it? The Zapotecs. What has happened? That Mexico has shown (one more time) that still hides first-class archaeological treasures. Your Government has just announced the discovery of a 14-century-old tomb decorated with exceptional paintings and sculptures in the south of the country, in San Pablo HuitzoOaxaca. There the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) has documented a Zapotec tomb dated around the year 600 AD, a large and ornate mausoleum that stands out for its good level of conservation. Its structure and sculptures are so well preserved, in fact, that experts hope they will shed new light on the civilization that erected it. Is it so relevant? Yes. Perhaps the best proof is that the Mexican authorities have not spared congratulations and flattery when referring to the discovery, which the president herself has been in charge of presenting. “We are very proud of the most relevant archaeological discovery of the last decade in our country,” he said. claim Sheinbaum on social networks. Similar words have been used by the Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curielthat has emphasized that same idea: it is not just that the Oaxaca tomb is spacious or rich in decoration, it is that a good part of its structure has managed to remain intact for 1,400 years, so today it offers a valuable ‘historical window’ to historians dedicated to the study of the Zapotec civilization. “This is an exceptional discovery due to its level of conservation and what it shows about the Zapotec culture: its social organization, its funerary rituals and its worldview, preserved in architecture and painting.” What does the tomb show? A combination of murals and sculptures surprising. At the entrance to the antechamber we find a sculpted owl, an image that in the worldview of its pre-Hispanic creators symbolized night and death. The figure is fascinating because its beak hides another surprise: the stuccoed and painted face of a Zapotec lord. Because of this position it stands out, right at the entrance to the mausoleum, archaeologists suspect that it could be a portrait of the ancestor to whom the tomb was dedicated and to whom his descendants turned as an intercessor before the gods. Is there more? Yes. As we move forward we find a decorated lintel with a frieze made up of stone tombstones engraved with “calendrical names”. If we look towards the jambs, another surprise: the figures of a man and a woman dressed in headdresses. Once again, their position has led archaeologists to speculate on their possible role, which in this case would be that of guardians. Already inside the funerary chamber, the walls preserve parts of “an extraordinary mural painting” with ocher, white, green, red and blue colors. In them, their authors portrayed a procession of characters with bags of copal. What do we know about the tomb? Researchers will have to continue studying it to understand it better, but they already have some clues. For example, the dating: they believe that the tomb dates from the late Classic period, around the year 600. They have also come to the conclusion that its sculptures and mural evoke “symbolic representations associated with power and death.” Now it is their turn to continue deciphering its iconography and (just as important) to advance conservation efforts. INAH himself explains that its experts are working to stabilize the mural, which is in a “delicate” state after 14 long centuries exposed to changes in time and the advance of roots and insects. Who were the Zapotecs? If the tomb has generated so much expectation, it is not only because of its good general state of conservation. The tomb is also valuable because it opens a new window to the Zapotecsa pre-Hispanic civilization from Mesoamerica that called themselves Binniza (“people who come from the clouds.” As remember the Mexican Archeology platform, constitute the oldest group in the Oaxacan region and since at least 1400 BC they mainly inhabited the Central Valleys and their surroundings. Its peak was reached between the 4th and 10th centuries AD, with its settlement of Monte Albán standing out above all, one of the most relevant cities in Mesoamerica at its time. It is estimated that it hosted some 35,000 people. The region has such relevant historical and heritage value that in 1987 UNESCO declared the historic center of Oaxaca and Monte Albán as a world heritage site. In recent decades, archaeologists they had already found Zapotec tombs. Images | INAH In Xataka | If Spain believes it has a problem with droughts, it is because it does not know what led the Mayans to collapse: 150 extreme years

Archaeologists have been fascinated by the largest temple in the Mayan world for years. Now we know that it is a map of the cosmos

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Our knowledge about the first Mesoamericans they just widened. And in a big way. A team led by professors from the University of Arizona has published a study with new revelations about Aguada Phoenixa site located east of the state of Tabasco, Mexico, near the border with Guatemala. Said like that, it may not seem like a big deal, but Aguada Fénix is ​​not just any place. When it was discovered, about five years ago, showed up as “the largest and oldest Mayan monument ever discovered.” Now we know that he also had some surprises in store for us. What is Aguada Fénix? To answer that question we have to go back a few years, to 2017, when with the help of lidar technology A team led by two professors from the University of Arizona (UA), Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, identified an ancient monument that until then had gone unnoticed in the state of Tabasco, very close to Guatemala. The laser beams, capable of passing through tree canopies and revealing three-dimensional shapes, showed nothing more nor less than a monument of more than 1,400 meters long, about 400 wide and between 9 and 15 high. That’s right from the start, because if you go beyond the central platform the set occupies much more spacewith roads and enormous pipelines connected to a nearby lagoon. Why is it important? Because of its reach. And historical relevance. When the archaeologists began to excavate and resorted to radiocarbon dating, they had another surprise: the complex had been built between the years 1000 and 800 BC, which was older than the archaeological site of Ceibalin Guatemala, considered the oldest ceremonial center. Aguada Fénix therefore left a double surprise for the researchers, as confirmed in 2020when announcing the discovery, the University of Arizona itself: not only was previous Ceibal, but stood out in size. In fact, it became the “largest known monument in Mayan history”, far surpassing the pyramids and palaces built during subsequent centuries. And why is it news now? Because researchers have not been content with presenting Aguada Fénix to the world. Over the last few years They have continued investigatingexpanding our knowledge of a complex that actually extends far beyond the central platform and the nine roads initially identified. Thanks to tools such as LIDAR, experts have found out that it extends kilometers further and detected an extensive hydraulic system with channels 35 meters wide and five meters deep with a dam. Have they discovered anything else? Yes. To begin with, Aguada Fénix probably served as a very special ceremonial center, a “cosmogram” that represented the order of the universe as its creators understood it. During the excavations they discovered a cross-shaped well in which they recovered ceremonial artifacts, pieces that offer us “unprecedented information about the first Mayan rituals.” To be more precise, they found jade axes and ornaments showing a crocodile, a bird and a woman giving birth. “It is like a model of the cosmos. They thought that it is ordered according to this cruciform pattern and that this is linked to the order of time,” adds Inomata. Ritual decorations? Not only that. When they reached the bottom of the pit, the researchers located another smaller cruciform structure with a new surprise. There they found mineral pigments, mounds of blue, green and yellow tones that mark cardinal points. “We knew that there are colors linked to directions, and that is important for all Mesoamerican peoples, even the Native American peoples of North America,” comments Inomata. “But we’ve never had pigments arranged this way. This is the first case where we found them associated with each specific direction. It was exciting.” And what were they doing there? Archaeologists believe that the different pigments and other materials were arranged as an offering and then covered with sand and earth. They also verified that radiocarbon dating dates them to around 900-845 BC. With all this data on the table, they do not rule out that people later returned to the monument to perform rituals and deposit objects. Another revealing fact is that the central axis of the Aguada Fénix monument seems to align with the sunrise on two very specific dates: October 17 and February 24, 130 days apart, which suggests to experts that it represented half of the Mesoamerican ritual cycle of 260 days. Inomata remembers that it would not be exceptional. The layout would agree with that of other Mayan sites. Why is it so relevant? Beyond the scope of the site itself, the new findings are relevant for what they tell us about the ancient inhabitants of the region. For a start, remember from the UAdebunks the old theory that Mesoamericans grew gradually and dedicated themselves to building increasingly larger settlements until they reached Tikal in Guatemala or Teotihuacán in central Mexico. Aguada Fénix is ​​long before the heyday of both enclaves, which does not mean that it is “as big or even bigger than them.” “What we are discovering is that there was a ‘big bang’ of construction at the beginning of 1,000 BC that no one really knew about,” reflects Inomata. With the discovery of the state of Tabasco it is confirmed that “from the beginning” there was large-scale planning and construction. Aguada Fénix is ​​so old in fact and anticipates so much of the Mayan apogee (around the 3rd-10th centuries AD) that experts are not sure whether its builders spoke Mayan languages. In any case they do admit “a strong cultural continuity” with later communities. How the hell did they build it? That is another of the most suggestive conclusions of the study that Inmoata and his colleagues have published in Science Advances. In it they slip a curious theory: although it is known that other enclaves, such as Tikal, in Guatemala, were governed by powerful monarchs, in the case of Aguada Fénix there are no indications that speak of powerful rulers with the ability to force their subjects to work. That does not mean … Read more

Archaeologists have always wondered what the severed and nailed heads of the Iberians mean. They already have the answer

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What does a severed head displayed on a wall mean? What if the skull also shows a huge iron nail stuck in the forehead? The question may sound crazy, but it has been intriguing archaeologists for decades who are dedicated to studying the communities that populated the northeast of the peninsula millennia ago, where have appeared in deposits like that of Ullastret. There are those who consider that the skulls were war trophies that were displayed as a warning and display of power. Others believe they are revered relics. Now we are closer to find out. What has happened? That archaeologists dedicated to studying the iberian communities of the Iron Age have delved into an enigma that has intrigued them for decades: Why the hell they cut off heads? What did they intend when they cut out skulls that they then exhibited to the public? Who owned them and what were they used for? The issue becomes even more mysterious if we take into account that historians have verified that part of these decapitated skulls seemed to receive “a treatment post mortem“which included certain incisions or the use of cedar oil; and (perhaps most fascinating) that some skulls show enormous holes and even iron nails driven into the bone. What exactly have they studied? What Rubén de la Fuente Seoane, an archaeologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​and his colleagues have done is to focus on two sites in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, located in what is now Catalonia: Puig Castellar and Ullastret. To be more precise, what they have analyzed are seven cut skulls located in both towns dated to the last millennium BC. Their conclusions have been expressed in an article published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. It may not seem like a very large sample, but skulls represent a much more widespread phenomenon. As I remembered this week Fran Lidz in The New York TimesSince 1904, archaeologists have located “dozens” of skulls of this type in the northeast of the peninsula dating between 800 and 218 BC. You don’t have to go far to see them. They can be observed at the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia (MAC), which has been expanding your collection. The most curious thing is that these skulls were not only cut off, they were also exhibited, placed on porches, stakes… Sometimes with enormous iron nails pierced through them. But… Why did they do it? That is the question that archaeologists have been asking for some time. Because? For what purpose were the skulls decapitated, prepared and displayed? “Who were these individuals and what were their heads used for?” he wonders From Fuente Seoane before remembering that “traditionally” the debate has revolved around two major hypotheses. There are those who maintain that the skulls were war trophies designed to intimidate enemies and those (in a radically different interpretation) interpreted them as “venerated relics” related to figures who had had influence in the community. And what is the answer? Easy to ask, not so easy to answer. As you remember the article published by De la Fuente Seoane and his colleagues, some scholars have looked at the location of the skulls to try to understand their function. The problem is that this seems to complicate the issue even more. There are heads that seem to have been displayed directly on walls. Others were discovered in graves or in the context of “domestic spaces.” How then to solve the enigma? De la Fuente-Seoane’s team chose to broaden the focus and avoid exclusive explanations. “Our study shows that it can be a mistake to have to choose only one option,” explains to The New York Times. What does that mean? That the practice of severed heads among the Iberians of the northeastern peninsula could be richer, more diverse and complex than we thought. To begin with, the archaeologists confirmed that the skulls do not appear to have been selected at random. Some treatment is also appreciated post mortem of the pieces, with practices that suggest the existence of experts in preparing the skulls, which would in turn reveal that it was not an occasional practice. “Our results reveal that the individuals from Puig Castellar and Ullastret would not have been selected at random. There would be a homogeneous tendency towards men in the ritual, but the patterns of mobility and location suggest greater diversity, which could imply social and cultural differences between individuals from the two communities,” comment. That is to say, experts suggest that the practice of severed heads could have responded to “several criteria.” Same ritual, several meanings? Exact. “In Puig Castellar, severed heads in public spaces could demonstrate power, venerate prominent members of the community or intimidate enemies. In Ullastrer, the location of the heads in exposed areas suggests that they were important inhabitants, revered locally,” pick up the item. The ritual was therefore rich and more diverse than many believed. “It did not respond to the same symbolic expression among the Iberian communities of the northeast, It varied according to the settlement“. “In some cases it seems that foreign individuals were mainly used as symbols of power and intimidation, while in other towns the veneration of individuals linked to the community could have been prioritized,” they point out from the UAB. “The practice of the heads was applied differently at each site, which seems to rule out a homogeneous symbolic expression.” How did they conclude that? The researchers decided to study the origin of each skull and ask themselves a question: Did they belong to the native population or are they remains of people from other communities? It may seem like a minor issue, but it is crucial to the premise with which the team worked: if the skulls were war trophies they probably did not have a local origin, while if they were used to venerate ancestors of the community they surely did. To clear up doubts, the experts resorted to the analysis of stable isotopes … Read more

Archaeologists have been wondering how the drought affected the Mayan collapse. The answer was in a remote cave

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The sayinger says that the devil is hidden in the details. Often, when we talk about archeology, key clues too. Archaeologists who investigate the collapse of The Mayan civilization. For years experts wonder if that decline was motivated by changes in commercial routes, wars or climatic factors, such as droughts, a theory that has gained weight over the last years. What historians did not know is to what extent the Maya endured the shortage of rain between the ninth and 10th centuries. Now we finally know. And all thanks to A stalagmit Lost in a remote cave of Yucatan. What happened? That archaeologists have just achieved a valuable clue to better know the history of Mayan civilization. And not any period. What they have discovered is a fact that sheds light on one of their most fascinating chapters, The collapse of the classical period, a phase that extended Between the IX and X Centuries From our era and that he saw how the flourishing Mayan civilization fell into decline and the twilight of large cities arrived. During that stage the southern limestone settlements were abandoned and civilization moved northlosing part of its influence at a political and economic level. What have you found out? That this stage was marked by droughts. To be more precise, archaeologists have found out that between 871 and 1021 of our era they happened Eight long droughts In the Yucatan Peninsula, periods of water shortage that with all probability influenced the population. Not all of them lasted the same, but experts estimate that each of those episodes of agostation lasted at least three years, although there was one in particular that extended 13. Let us talk about extreme droughts It does not mean that it did not rain. With that term archaeologists refer to periods of at least three consecutive years during which the dry station lasted more months than usual or even in which one cannot talk about wet season as such. The experts They recognize That 13 years under these conditions, even with the water management techniques developed by the Maya, leads to “a great impact for society.” Why is it important? Because as the authors of the investigation recognize in An article Posted a few days ago in the magazine Science Advancesthat prolonged drought chain could play a key role in the history of the Maya, “contributing to the collapse of classical civilization.” “This period of Mayan history has fascinated us for centuries”, Recognize Dr. Daniel H. James, author of the study. “Multiple theories have emerged about the cause of collapse, such as changes in commercial routes, wars or severe droughts, based on the archaeological evidence left by the Maya. But in recent decades we have begun to learn a lot about what happened to the Maya and why, mixing archaeological data with quantifiable climate evidence.” Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that archaeologists explore the impact that droughts had on the decline of classical Mayan civilization. Over the last years they have already reached more or less similar conclusions thanks to sediment study collected at the bottom of the Chichankanab lagoon or of Stalactite samples Obtained in a cave in southern Belize, clues that pointed to the role played by climate oscillations in The Mayan collapse. The new data obtained by James and their colleagues also fit other signals, as with the dates left by the Maya themselves in their monuments or records in the popular Chinchén Itzá. There, in one of the great settlement of the Yucatan, the inscriptions of dates are mysteriously faded just during the periods in which we now know that there were severe droughts. “It does not mean that the Maya left Chichen Itzá these periods, but it is likely that they had more urgent things than to worry about building monuments, as if the crops on which they depended would be successful or not.” So … why is it important? Although It is not the first time that archaeologists point to the effect of droughts in the Mayan collapse the new study published in Science It is important for several reasons. First, for your approach. Second, for its precision. In this case, researchers have departed from an especially valuable track: the stalagmites located in a Yucatan cave. Thanks to the dating and analysis of the oxygen isotope layers that contain these calcareous rocks, formed on the ground with the water that drips in the cave, experts have been able to obtain “very detailed information” on the climate of the terminal classic period. “Previous studies have measured the isotopes contained in lake sediments to determine the severity of drought, but do not contain enough detail to accurately find out the climatic conditions in a specific year and location,” They clarify From Cambridge. Unlike what happens with the sediments collected from the bottom of the lakes, “excellent to obtain a global vision,” says James, the stalagmites offer a variety of concise data. “They allow us to access more precise details that we were missing,” Write down the expertwho now acts as a researcher at the University College in London. According to the team, this has been the first time that archaeologists have been able to isolate information about the rains of humid and dry stations individually, obtaining the details of each one. How precise are they? Its authors say so. So far the stalagmites had provided data on rainfall annual measures during the classical terminal periodbut that information did not allow scholars to go down to detail. How much did it rain exactly in humid stations and dry? Thanks to the Yucatan stalagmite analyzed by the experts, which contains relatively thick annual layers, of about a millimeter, the experts have been able to analyze oxygen isotopes of each stage, an indicator of the drought. “Knowing the average annual rainfall does not reveal as much as knowing how every rainy season was”, Dr. James points out. “Isolate the rainy season … Read more

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