11.
DHOLAVIRA STEPWELL
In 2014, news reports announced the alleged discovery of a 5,000-year-old stepwell in
the Indus Valley city of Dholavira in present-day northwestern India.
It’s the largest ancient reservoir found in the country to date, measuring 240 feet
(73 meters) long, 96 feet (29.3 meters) wide, and 33 feet (10 meters) deep.
The structure is nearly three times bigger than the “Great Bath” at Mohenjo-Daro
in what is now Pakistan, which represents the earliest public water tank of the ancient
world.
At the time of the Dholavira stepwell’s discovery, researchers announced plans to
continue investigating the site in hopes of studying water flow patterns, ancient water
conservation efforts, and evidence of manufacturing that they found, including beads and semi-precious
stones.
Stepwells, which are ponds or wells with stairs descending into them, were used for both practical
and religious purposes.
They also served as monuments, with some bearing elaborate carvings.
News of the stepwell at Dholavira perplexed officials from the Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI), who pointed out that the site was discovered roughly 15 years earlier and
was not exactly news.
Speaking with Scroll.in, archaeological engineer Vilas Jadhav further explained that just because
a well has steps, it doesn’t mean it’s a stepwell.
Experts conceded that the structure, which was built around 2500 B.C., is still impressive
in its own right, but they contested the seemingly miscalculated claims made by the media.
10.
ROMAN MILITARY CAMP
Sometime during the second century B.C., around 10,000 Roman soldiers built a sprawling 49-acre
(20 hectares) military camp in what is now Melgaço, Portugal.
The site, known as Lomba do Mouro, served as a temporary fortification for soldiers
who were crossing the Laboreiro Mountain between the Lima and Minho Rivers.
Used for short periods -- sometimes just days or weeks -- during the summer months, the
camp was situated along a route that traversed high ground for safety reasons.
Temporary accommodations like these are difficult to detect because they left behind little
archaeological evidence, and the Roman Army often destroyed them before leaving.
Researchers discovered Lomba do Mouro using remote sensing techniques.
Until now, they knew of several mentionings in written sources of Roman soldiers crossing
through different valleys, but they didn’t know exactly where this occurred.
The site is the oldest known camp of its type in Galicia and Northern Portugal.
Its exact age is unknown, but experts believe it may be linked to the campaign of Roman
consul Decimus Junius Brutus in 137 B.C., a time when Rome was increasingly advancing
on Northwest Iberia.
9.
PREHISTORIC CABIN
A handful of carbonized bamboo fragments found in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province
are from a Neolithic cabin dating back 4,500 years, according to archaeologists from the
Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeological Research Institute.
Discovered among the ruins of Baodun Ancient Town, the artifacts represent the oldest known
evidence of a bamboo-mud style building on the Chengdu Plain.
In addition to the structure, the team found tens of thousands of pottery pieces, dozens
of stoneware fragments, and suspected rice paddy ruins.
The items resemble objects found at nearby excavations of a Sanxingdui site, which came
after Baodun was established.
Based on the similarities between the artifacts, scientists believe that by further exploring
Baodun, they can learn more about the mysterious Sanxingdui civilization.
The ruins at Baodun are the largest and earliest remains of a prehistoric town along the upper
reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as the earliest mass settlement site on the Chengdu
Plain and the birthplace of rice cultivation in the region, CGTN reported.
Sites like this challenge the long-held notion that the Yellow River Valley was the sole
origin of ancient Chinese civilization.
8.
MYSTERY BRONZE AGE STRUCTURE
Since its discovery on a small hill in northern Italy in 2005, experts have been trying to
figure out what a wooden structure known as the Noceto Vasca Votiva was used for.
Built sometime between 1600 and 1300 B.C., during the Late Bronze Age, the oak contraption
is slightly larger than a backyard swimming pool, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Using dendrochronology -- the practice of dating an object or event based on a tree’s
annual growth rings -- and radiocarbon dating, a team of researchers from Cornell University
recently determined that the structure’s upper tank was built in 1432 B.C., and that
its lower tank was built in 1444 B.C.
They pinpointed these dates with 95 percent certainty, allotting for a margin error of
four years.
A newly published paper describes how the Noceto Vasca Votiva was built during a time
of major societal change in the region, which was characterized by: fewer, larger settlements,
more specialized manufacturing, and changes in burial practices.
Due to its location atop a hill, the structure was probably not used as a well or reservoir,
and it contained a collection of artifacts that appear to have been deliberately deposited
into it, including figurines, ceramic pottery, and stone and wood objects.
The evidence indicates that it was likely used for a supernatural water ritual of some
sort.
7.
BRONZE AGE HOMES
Central Europe’s largest early Bronze Age settlement, nicknamed the “German Stonehenge,”
is located roughly 85 miles (136.8 km) southwest of Berlin in Saxony-Anhalt.
More formally known as Ringheiligtum Pömmelte, the Neolithic site dates back to the late
third millennium B.C. and contains an arrangement of seven concentric wooden rings.
Excavations at the site have turned up gruesome finds, including mutilated bodies of women
and children, with some bearing evidence of severe head trauma and rib fractures from
around the time they died.
Researchers long believed that the site was used for seasonal sacrificial rituals and
religious events.
But recent excavations found a two-house dwelling, indicating that people may have lived at Ringheiligtum
Pömmelte after all.
Archaeologists uncovered further signs of permanent habitation, including 20 ditches,
numerous burials and 80 complete house plans encompassing 130 dwellings.
Most of the homes date back to around 2200 B.C., during the time of the Unetice culture,
but some are even older, originating around 2800 B.C. and bearing signs of the Bell Beaker
culture.
Archaeologists are continuing to explore this newly discovered residential zone in hopes
of learning more about the Unetice culture’s social and religious customs.
6.
DEATH MASKS OF MYCENAE
While excavating the ancient Greek city of Mycenae in 1876, German archaeologist Heinrich
Schliemann discovered seven gold funerary masks that were placed on the faces of buried
bodies.
He was convinced that one of the masks belonged to King Agamemnon, a Mycenaean king mentioned
in Homer’s epic poem the Iliad.
While the mask was ultimately dated to 400 years before Agamemnon’s time, it’s still
famously known as Agamemnon’s mask.
Bearing the image of a man who appeared to have died around age 30, it stands out against
the other masks, which are simple and lack specific features.
Speaking with Xinhua news outlet, Constantinos Paschalidis, curator of Antiquities at the
National Archaeological Museum in Athens, explained that whoever the man was, he was
considered royalty and was buried with full honors, and that all the recipients of the
gold masks were important people.
The masks are largely a mystery to this day, especially since the people who lived in the
region were rather poor until around 1600 B.C., when they suddenly became extremely
wealthy.
Experts don’t know how or why this happened, where the gold for the masks was sourced from,
or where the Mycenaeans got the idea of covering the faces of their dead with gold.
5.
SHAMANIC SNAKE STAFF
During recent excavations at a late Stone Age dig site northwest of Helsinki in southern
Finland, a team of researchers discovered a 4,400-year-old wooden staff shaped like
a snake.
They believe that a Neolithic shaman may have used the 21-inch-long (53 cm) stick for magic
rituals, according to a new study.
Carved from a single piece of wood, the piece depicts a long, slithering snake with an open
mouth.
The team that conducted the research believes that it may represent a grass snake or a European
adder, but not everyone agrees.
A researcher who was not involved in the study, told LiveScience that in her opinion, the
depiction more accurately represents a viper.
She further added that the viper has historically played a significant role in folk religion
and magic.
The shaman who owned the stick likely used it for rituals and, possibly, for talking
to the dead.
The people who lived in the area believed that it contained a “Land of the Dead,”
according to ARTnews, and snakes represented an intermediary of sorts between the real
and the spiritual world.
The dig site was discovered by accident in the 1950s by a ditch digging team, but excavations
since then have been intermittent.
Scientists believe the settlement was inhabited from 4000 B.C. to 2000 B.C.
4.
ROMAN BASILICA
Israel’s largest known Roman-era basilica was just discovered in Tel Ashkelon National
Park near the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Founded by Herod the Great, the first-century structure functioned as a public building
where citizens carried out business transactions, met for social and legal reasons, and held
performances and religious ceremonies, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
Measuring 360 feet (110 meters) long and 130 feet (40 meters) wide, the building boasted
a colonnade consisting of 40-foot (12.2 meters) tall columns and had a central space flanked
by two side halls.
Around 200 marble objects at the site were imported from Asia Minor during the second
century.
In 363 A.D., the basilica sustained heavy damage from an earthquake along the Dead Sea
and was abandoned.
Some of the building’s marble was repurposed centuries later under the Abbasid and Fatimid
caliphates.
In addition to the building itself, the team found coins dating back to Herod’s rule,
which lasted from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C.
This isn’t the first time archaeologists unearthed the 2,000-year-old site.
Back in the 1920s, British archaeologist John Garstang discovered and reburied the structure.
Recent excavations began in 2008 and are ongoing, with the ultimate goal of restoring the site
to its former glory.
3.
1,000-YEAR-OLD EGG
Based on chicken egg fragments discovered throughout Israel, archaeologists know that
poultry farming came to the region over two millennia ago.
Recently, they found an incredibly rare intact egg while excavating a cesspit in the ancient
city of Yavneh.
It was incredibly well-preserved, owing to the oxygen-free human waste it sat in for
around 1,000 years.
Staff members unfortunately managed to crack the egg while removing it, despite taking
utmost precautions - woops!
Most of its contents were lost, but part of the yolk was saved, and the researchers preserved
it with plans to perform a DNA analysis.
The crack was also repaired, thanks to the director of the IAA’s Organic Materials
Conservation Laboratory.
In addition to the egg, the team found three dolls made from bone, which were customary
toys of the period, as well as an oil lamp unique to the late Abbasid period, which was
used for dating the egg.
Israel is also home to Maresha, one of the earliest known sites with evidence of chicken
farming.
The practice appears to have arrived there around 2,300 years ago, after the conquest
of Jerusalem by Alexander the Great.
2.
SHARK ATTACK VICTIM
Roughly 3,000 years ago, a man living in Japan was brutally attacked by a shark.
He died with hundreds of injuries to his arms, legs, chest, and abdomen and was buried at
the Tsukumo site near Japan’s Seto Inland Sea.
Experts from the University of Oxford were baffled when they first examined his remains,
wondering what could have possibly caused such horrific wounds.
A thorough analysis of the injuries ruled out human conflict and more common animal
predators and scavengers, leaving the team to conclude that a tiger shark, or a white
shark, mauled the unfortunate individual to death.
Based on the number of tooth marks on the skeleton, the attack likely lasted a while.
Researcher Rick Schulting told CNN that evidence of shark attacks on humans is rare in the
archaeological record, which makes sense, since there are only a handful of fatal shark
attacks on humans throughout the world today.
The mutilated remains represent the oldest known evidence of such an occurrence.
1.
EUROPE’S OLDEST WINE
Greece is one of Europe’s oldest winemaking regions.
The practice may have even originated there, according to a new study detailing the discovery
of Europe’s oldest wine near ancient Philippi in northern Greece.
It was there, in a single house, that archaeologists found thousands of ancient grape seeds and
ceramics containing equally old traces of wine.
The evidence was preserved after a fire broke out around 4300 B.C. and destroyed the home.
Spanning roughly 11 acres (4.5 hectares), the Dikili Tash site is a tell, or a mound,
which grew over thousands of years as humans repeatedly built over the site.
Looming nearly 50 feet (15.2 meters) above the surrounding area, the layers extend as
far deep as 55 feet (16.8 meters) below ground.
Researchers only recently discovered and began excavating the lower levels at Dikili Tash,
which contain evidence of the little-studied Early and Middle Neolithic people who lived
there.
The prehistoric wine was discovered among these layers and presents interesting questions
about the role of alcohol in the ancient society’s culture, and any problems they may have experienced
due to alcohol consumption.
Furthermore, archaeologists hope to learn more in general about the societies who occupied
the site during these early periods, including their social and economic organization.
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