Showing posts with label archaeologists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label archaeologists. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2017

A tremendous wealth of the Vikings was discovered on a small island in the Baltic Sea. The entire Swedish was much poorer

Riches found on the island of Gotland. Credit: Gabriel Hildebrand / The Royal Coin Cabinet























Stratification did increase on the island as time passed, though. Archaeologists have found that, throughout the ninth and tenth centuries, silver hoards were distributed throughout Gotland, suggesting that wealth was more or less uniformly shared among the island’s farmers. But around 1050, this pattern shifted. “In the late eleventh century, you start to have fewer hoards overall, but, instead, there are some really massive hoards, usually found along the coast, containing many, many thousands of coins,” says Jonsson. This suggests that trading was increasingly controlled by a small number of coastal merchants.

This stratification accelerated near the end of the Viking Age, around 1140, when Gotland began to mint its own coins, becoming the first authority in the eastern Baltic region to do so. “Gotlandic coins were used on mainland Sweden and in the Baltic countries,” says Majvor Östergren, an archaeologist who has studied the island’s silver hoards. Whereas Gotlanders had valued foreign coins based on their weight alone, these coins, though hastily hammered out into an irregular shape, had a generally accepted value. More than eight million of these early Gotlandic coins are estimated to have been minted between 1140 and 1220, and more than 22,000 have been found, including 11,000 on Gotland alone.


(Nanouschka Myrberg Burström)An example of one of the earliest silver coins minted on Gotland (obverse, left; reverse, right) dates from around 1140.
Gotland is thought to have begun its coinage operation to take advantage of new trading opportunities made possible by strife among feuding groups on mainland Sweden and in western Russia. This allowed Gotland to make direct trading agreements with the Novgorod area of Russia and with powers to the island’s southwest, including Denmark, Frisia, and northern Germany. Gotland’s new coins helped facilitate trade between its Eastern and Western trading partners, and brought added profits to the island’s elite through tolls, fees, and taxes levied on visiting traders. In order to maintain control over trade on the island, it was limited to a single harbor, Visby, which remains the island’s largest town. As a result, the rest of Gotland’s trading harbors, including Fröjel, declined in importance around 1150.

Gotland remained a wealthy island in the medieval period that followed the Viking Age, but, says Carlsson, “Gotlanders stopped putting their silver in the ground. Instead, they built more than 90 stone churches during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.” Although many archaeologists believe that the Gotland Vikings stashed their wealth in hoards for safekeeping, 

Carlsson thinks that, just as did the churches that were built later, they served a devotional purpose. In many cases, he argues, hoards do not appear to have been buried in houses but rather atop graves, roads, or borderlands. Indeed, some were barely buried at all because, he argues, others in the community knew not to touch them. “These hoards were not meant to be taken up,

” he says, “because they were meant as a sort of sacrifice to the gods, to ensure a good harvest, good fortune, or a safer life.” 

In light of the scale, sophistication, and success of the Gotland Vikings’ activities, these ritual depositions may have seemed to them a small price to pay.

Other articles on the same theme:




Story source: 
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Archaeology . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

A macabre discovery reveals a little known fact in the history of ancient Greece


The end of the seventh century B.C. was a tumultuous period in Athenian history. Though once ruled by a king, the increasingly powerful region of Attica, home to Athens, had come to be presided over by aristocrats who maintained their hold on power through landownership and lifetime appointments. But as the century drew to a close, the political climate was primed for a new type of government—that of a single ruler, or tyrant. An evocative gravesite on the outskirts of Athens is a testament to this contentious moment in history.


The 13 Regions (NUTS II) of Greece and location of the Attica ResearchGate

Excavators at the Phaleron Delta necropolis have uncovered the remains of 80 men, shackled together at their wrists, lying in a mass grave. The most recent osteological studies have determined that the majority of the men were between 20 and 30 years old, although four were much younger, and that all 80 had been killed in the same manner—with a fatal blow to the head. 


Skeletons from the Phaleron necropolis to be scrutinized image Archaeology Wiki

The discovery of two small vases buried with them has allowed archaeologists to date the grave to the mid-to-late seventh century B.C., suggesting to project director Stella Chrysoulaki that the men were executed in the course of one of these attempts to gain political primacy. “For the first time,” Chrysoulaki says,  “We can illustrate historical events that took place during the struggle between aristocrats in the seventh century and led, through a long process, to the establishment of a democratic regime in the city of Athens.”



Other articles on the same theme:














Story source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Archaeology . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length

Thursday, December 15, 2016

A new treasure has been discovered in Greece it was found in the ruins of an ancient city dating back 2,500 years

A piece of pottery dating to the late 6th century B.C photo: atlasobscura.com
You would think that every single bit of archaeological evidence for ancient life in Greece would have been uncovered by now. But there are still discoveries to be made. A team of archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Bournemouth in England took a deeper look at a site that had been dismissed as unimportant and found the ruins of an ancient city dating back 2,500 years, reports the Local.The city was located on a hillside near Vlochós, five hours north of Athens


Mysterious lost Greek city photo: DailyMail.co.uk
Part of the ruins there had been previously known, but since this area of Greece was thought to be a backwater in ancient times, this place was thought to be a small settlement of little interest.

To this team, though, “the fact that nobody has ever explored the hill before is a mystery,” said Robin Rönnlund, the Ph.D student who led the fieldwork.


From the air, the walls are visible photo: atlasobscura.com

Since they started exploring the city, the archaeologists have found the city’s walls, gates, and towers, along with pottery and coins, dating as far back as 500 B.C. The team is using ground-penetrating radar to map the city and avoid disturbing the site through excavation. It’s “quite a large city,” says Rönnlund, and could reveal more about ancient life in this overlooked part of Greece—at least about life up until about 300 B.C., when the city looks to have been abandoned.


Other articles on the same theme:






Story source:


The above post is reprinted from materials provided by AtlasObscura . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

3,000 years old mummy discovered in a tomb in Egypt

Spanish archaeologists have discovered an ancient Egyptian mummy that was in very good condition, near Luxor (Egypt).

This one of the best preserved mummies, it looks like the body of a man who was called Amenrenef a servant of a royal house. This is a colorful wooden sarcophagus.

The tomb was discovered near the southern wall of the Temple of Millions of Years, temple which was built on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor by Pharaoh Thutmosis III (1490-1436 BCE). Known as the "Napoleon of Egypt" was the sixth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, the most popular of all the dynasties of Egypt.

Amenrenef apparently did not live in the time of Thutmosis III, the tomb is dated around 1,000 BCE The casing was covered with a multitude of colorful decorations representing religious symbols, examples of which are solar symbols, goddesses Isis and Nephthys, who open their wings, the four sons of Horus and other religious scenes.




Other articles on the same theme:






Story source: 
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Seeker . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Wednesday, September 28, 2016

A mysterious tomb was discovered in Greece. '' We do not know who is buried inside ''

An ancient tomb found in northern Greece is probably a monument to Hephaestion, Alexander's companion, a team of archaeologists announced, cited by AFP.

"Suppose it's a funerary shrine dedicated to Hephaestion," said the press Katerina Peristeri, leading Amphipolis archaeological work on the site. "We do not know if it's buried inside," she added.

According to the ancient historian Plutarch, when Hephaestion died in Ectaban (Iran), "Alexander and asked his architect, Deinokrates, to lift mausoleums in the country", recalled Peristeri. Amphipolis massive tomb (located about 60 kilometers from the city of Serres) is the largest ever found in Greece. He was brought to light in 2012 and opened last year, fueling speculation that could be dedicated to a close friend of Alexander, his mother, Olympia, or his wife, Roxana. 


Investigations have not led yet to find a definitive answer. Archaeologists have found three inscriptions, one of which is the monogram of Hephaestion.

But other archaeologists put into question the discovery team Katerina Peristeri, saying that the tomb was not conducted under the Romans and the Macedonians. Peristeri maintains that it was built in the fourth century BCE century, between 325 and 300, and was used until Roman times.

Story source: 

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Agerpres . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Gold foil with spells of 2,000 years ago, found recently. '' It's a very important and unic discovery ''

Scientists have discovered in eastern Serbia a series of incantations engraved on sheets of gold or silver, buried along with the remains of people who died 2,000 years ago.

In incantations invoke divine powers both good and evil, researchers are still trying to translate exactly what is written on paper.

,, Greek alphabet is, that's all we know. The language is Aramaic, this is a new mystery of the Middle Ages, '' said Miomir Korac from the Archaeology Institute in Belgrade.

,, I deciphered the names of some demons related to Syria's territory today, '' added Ilija Dankova. Spells were discovered inside amulets engraved on thin sheets of precious metal surrounded by decorative symbols. Each sheet was the size of a pack candy, but his time was invaluable.

The archaeological site is located near the town Kostoloc today, belonged to the Romans between I and VI centuries AD, under the name of Viminacium. Researchers estimated that the artifacts were buried around the fourth century AD

Although this is the first discovery of spells in Serbia, researchers have seen similar incantations written on clay tablets in countries like Britain or Egypt. Spells were written for a person to have some benefit or be damned, people were buried with them to lead them either to demons or angels in the afterlife.

Usually links ,, were in love, ordering the man to fall in love, but there were dark spells such as: ,, Let your body become dead, cold and hard as the hub, '' said Dankova.

In 2006, one of the tablets was found in a grave in Leicester (UK) which date from the second century d.Hr, which required a god damned be a thief; ,, For god Maglus, the offender who stole his mantle Servandus be destroyed until the ninth day. ''


Dankova said these spells were buried with the deceased who suffered a tragic death, they considered these people found its soul ,, hard way ''. Mantras can reveal more about the beliefs of people who lived in Viminacium.

,, It is an important archeological discovery reveals how luxurious as was the lives of people in that area and how much believed in spells on the sheets, '' said Korac.

,, According to my knowledge, have not been discovered such incantations written on gold leaf, '' he added.

Bound lead tablets of magic inscriptions (300–500 AD)

There is evidence that the Roman Empire was going through a religious transition during the fourth century and is widely used both Christianity and pagan gods. ,, On the tablet appear different entities, both being invoked Christ and pagan gods. The transition to Christianity was slow, '' added Korac

The team is in the midst excavations until they finish digging and correctly analyzed the relics we can know more about this mystery.

Other articles on the same theme:


Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Science AlertNote: Materials may be edited for content and length.