sloth unleashed (Posts tagged archaeology)

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(via Archaeologists may have found ruins of fabled entrance to Zapotec underworld | Ars Technica)

In 1674, a priest named Francisco de Burgoa published his account of visiting the ruins of the Zapotec city of Mitla in what is now Oaxaca in southern Mexico. He described a vast underground temple with four interconnected chambers, the last of which featured a stone door leading into a deep cavern. The Zapotec believed this to be the entrance to the underworld known as Lyobaa (“place of rest”). Burgoa claimed that Spanish missionaries who explored the ruins sealed all entrances to the temple, and local lore has long held that the entrance lies under the main altar of a Catholic church built over the ruins.

An international team of archaeologists recently announced that they found evidence for this fabled underground labyrinth under the ruins—right where the legends said it should be—after conducting scans of the site using ground penetrating radar (GPR), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and seismic noise tomography (SNT).  The team also found evidence of an earlier construction stage of a palace located in another part of the site.

Mitla is one of the most significant archaeological sites in Oaxaca Valley. It was an important religious center, serving as a sacred burial site—hence its name, which derives from Mictlan (“place of the dead” or “underworld”). The unique structures at Mitla feature impressively intricate mosaics and geometric designs on all the tombs, panels, friezes, and walls, made with small polished stone pieces fitted together without using mortar.

Source: Ars Technica
entrance to Zapotec underworld Archaeology discovery sciende tech religion Mitla
“ Now the same expedition team has announced the discovery of H. naledi bodies deposited in fetal positions, indicating intentional burials. This predates the earliest known burials by Homo sapiens by at least 100,000 years, suggesting that brain...

(via Homo naledi were burying their dead at least 100,000 years before humans | Ars Technica)

Now the same expedition team has announced the discovery of H. naledi bodies deposited in fetal positions, indicating intentional burials. This predates the earliest known burials by Homo sapiens by at least 100,000 years, suggesting that brain size might not be the definitive factor behind such complex behavior. The team also found crosshatched symbols engraved on the walls of the cave that could date as far back as 241,000–335,000 years, although testing is still ongoing…

“I think we are facing a remarkable discovery here of hominids with brains a third the size of living humans, and slightly larger than chimpanzees, burying their dead—something previously only found in large-brained hominids—as well as etching meaning-making symbols on the wall,” said Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer in Residence who leads the Rising Star Project. “This would mean not only are humans not unique in the development of symbolic practices, but [they] may not even have invented such behaviors.”

Source: Ars Technica
Homo naledi burying their dead science tech archaeology 100000 years before humans
“…Perhaps the best known examples of this kind of superstitious funerary practice are the so-called “vampire” burials that occasionally pop up at archaeological sites around the world. In the early 1990s, children playing in Connecticut stumbled upon...

(via Bent nails at Roman burial site form “magical barrier” to keep dead from rising | Ars Technica)

…Perhaps the best known examples of this kind of superstitious funerary practice are the so-called “vampire” burials that occasionally pop up at archaeological sites around the world. In the early 1990s, children playing in Connecticut stumbled upon the 19th-century remains of a middle-aged man identified only by the initials “JB55,” spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin. His skull and femurs were neatly arranged in the shape of a skull and crossbones, leading archaeologists to conclude that the man had been a suspected “vampire” by his community. They have since found a likely identification for JB55 and reconstructed what the man may have looked like.

In 2018, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a 10-year-old child at an ancient Roman site in Italy with a rock carefully placed in its mouth. This suggests those who buried the child—who probably died of malaria during a deadly 5th-century outbreak—feared it might rise from the dead and spread the disease to those who survived. Locals are calling it the “Vampire of Lugnano.” And last year, archaeologists uncovered an unusual example of people using these tips in a 17th-century Polish cemetery near Bydgoszcz: a female skeleton buried with a sickle placed across her neck, as well as a padlock on the big toe of her left foot.

Source: Ars Technica
Bent nails Roman burial site magical barrier superstitious funerary practices science tech archaeology

(via Archaeologists discovered a new papyrus of Egyptian Book of the Dead | Ars Technica)

One of the most famous spells is the “Weighing of the Heart” (designated 125 by scholars), dating to around 1475 BCE, by which time copies of the Book of the Dead were commonly written on papyrus. Anubis would lead the deceased before Osiris, where they would swear they had not committed any of 42 listed “sins,” and their heart was weighed on a pair of scales against a feather to determine if they were worthy of a place in the afterlife. (Those who watched Moon Knight will remember a version of this ceremony depicted in one of the later episodes, conducted by the hippo-headed Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility, Taweret.) Of the 192 spells currently known—no one manuscript contains them all—there are several protective spells to guard against the damage or loss of the heart, and in one case (30b) imploring the heart not to “betray” its owner during the weighing ritual by “telling lies in the presence of the god.”

Copies of the Book of the Dead were made to order by scribes, and the scrolls could be as short as 1 meter (3.2 feet) and as long as 40 meters (about 131 feet). People knew of the existence of such scrolls in the Middle Ages, and assumed that they were religious in nature because they were found in tombs. Karl Richard Lepsius coined the name Book of the Dead in 1842 after translating one such text. The best known example to date is the Papyrus of Ani, discovered in luxor in 1888 and now housed in the British Museum. But such finds are increasingly rare.

Source: Ars Technica
new papyrus discovering history Egyptian Book of the Dead | Waziri papyrus archaeology science tech

(via Archaeologists unearth remains of 17th-century female “vampire” in Poland | Ars Technica)

…archaeologists have uncovered an unusual example of people using these tips in a 17th-century Polish cemetery near Bydgoszcz: a female skeleton buried with a sickle placed across her neck, as well as a padlock on the big toe of her left foot.

Source: Ars Technica
17th-century female “vampire” remains archaeology poland science history tech sickle placed across her neck padlock on the big toe
arstechnica.com

World’s oldest yarn hints that Neanderthals had basic math skills

We have no proof Neanderthals told stories, but they definitely spun yarns.

A tiny scrap of thread stuck to the lower side of a stone flake offers a huge insight into Neanderthal life. The 6.2mm (0.24 inch) long bit of thread, spun from plant fibers, is the oldest example of the material ever found. According to uranium-series dating, the thread came from a layer of sediment between 52,000 and 41,000 years old at a Neanderthal site called Abri du Maras, in France. Its nearest rival for the “oldest string ever” title is a fragment of fiber from a 19,000-year-old site in Israel…  

Source: Ars Technica
World’s oldest yarn archaeology Neanderthal life discovery Science Fiction basic math skills
The various items may have belonged to a Roman sorceress “ The archaeologists were diligently excavating Casa del Giardino in the park when they found a decaying wooden box with brass hinges. Many of the artifacts are adorned with iconography...

(via Archaeologists discovered an invaluable cache of ritual artifacts at Pompeii | Ars Technica)

The various items may have belonged to a Roman sorceress

The archaeologists were diligently excavating Casa del Giardino in the park when they found a decaying wooden box with brass hinges. Many of the artifacts are adorned with iconography associated with fertility, fortune, and protection against bad luck, according to Osanna, such as Egyptian scarab beetles (used to protect pregnant women and babies), phallus-shaped pendants, and bird bones used to ward off the “evil eye.”

Source: Ars Technica
Pompeii and Herculaneum vesuvius eruption 79 AD history Archaeology ritual artifacts science Casa del Giardino fertility fortune protection against bad luck
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