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A new archaeological find on an island off of Scotland could have a connection to Neolithic religion. Jeffrey Brown examines background of the discovery and explores some of its surrounding mysteries, including why the site might have been part of the biggest barbecues in history.
Transcript
JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: the unfolding mystery of a huge and exciting new archaeological find. It's all happening on a group of islands off the northern tip of Scotland.
Jeffrey Brown reports.
JEFFREY BROWN: Drive across the windswept, almost treeless landscape of the Orkney Islands, and you will see sheep, cattle and farmland. But it won't be long before you come across an ancient standing stone, or two or three.
The islands are littered with a collection of world-famous archaeological sites. There's Skara Brae, a superbly preserved Neolithic hut settlement, Maeshowe, a chambered stone tomb, built so the midwinter sun shines along its low entrance hall, and the Standing Stones of Stenness.
But now, nearby, a site recently unearthed site to top them all, the Ness of Brodgar, a vast temple-like complex, one of the most important Neolithic discoveries in Europe that may provide new insight into Stone Age religious practice.
© Valentina MordvintsevaThe burial of the warrior was richly adorned and contained more than a dozen gold artifacts. This fibula-brooch, despite being only 2.3 by 1.9 inches in size, contains intricate decorations leading toward the center where a rock crystal bead is mounted.
That is just one amazing find among a wealth of ancient treasures dating back more than 2,000 years that scientists have uncovered there.
Among their finds are two bronze helmets, discovered on the surface of the necropolis. One helmet (found in fragments and restored) has relief carvings of curled sheep horns while the other has ridges, zigzags and other odd shapes.
Although looters had been through the necropolis before, the warrior's grave appears to have been untouched. The tip of the sword he was buried with points toward his pelvis, and researchers found "a round gold plaque with a polychrome inlay" near the tip, they write in a paper published in the most recent edition of the journal Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia.
© Essam al-Sudani/AFPThe walls of Uruk, east of Samawa, were first built 4,700 years ago by the Sumerian King Gilgamesh. More than 40,000 archaeological sites are still untapped.
"As part of its work programme for the current year, the ministry has reached agreements with six archaeological teams from Italy, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic," Hakim al-Shammary, director of the tourism minister's media office, told Mawtani.
The teams will begin excavations at a number of sites, particularly in the south, he said.
"Among the sites to be excavated are ancient hills such as Tal Abu Tuwaira in the city of al-Nasiriya, Tal al-Baqarat in al-Kut and Tal Abu Shathar in Maysan province, as well as other sites in al-Dalmaj marshes," he said.
Iraqi archaeologists and excavators will work alongside these teams to acquire additional skills, using advanced equipment to salvage relics and identify historical periods, and learning how to preserve the pieces, al-Shammary said.
"The return of foreign archaeology teams to the country, as a result of the stable security situation, will give great momentum to ministry efforts and plans for the excavation of archaeological treasures," he said.
Geographic surveys indicate that more than 40,000 archaeological sites throughout Iraq have yet to be excavated and studied, al-Shammary said.
The ministry hopes to increase the number of foreign excavation teams, not only so they can support officials through excavation, "but also to help us undertake the special projects of maintaining and rehabilitating archaeological and heritage sites, with their expertise and advanced technologies", he said.
© CNTV
117 years ago, in 1896, Swedish explorer Sven Hedin made a surprising discovery at the oasis town of Dandan Oilik, in the heart of the Taklimakan Desert.
Zhang Yuzhong, former deputy director of Xinjiang Archeology Research Institute, said, "In the past, experts in China and abroad had believed there was no trace of humans in the desert. But Sven Hedin found many remains of houses. Then Aurel Stein, another explorer known as a pioneer of the Silk Road, stayed there for two weeks, and found the remains of another 18 residential houses and identified some temples. He also found documents from the Tang and Han dynasties.
In 1900, Hedin once again visited the Taklimakan. In this expedition, he found the ruins of the ancient city Loulan, buried under the sand.
© Latin American Herald Tribune
The ministry said in a statement that it suspected antiquities might be found at a planned construction site for a public service building and dispatched a team of experts who found the burial chambers there.
The tombs have two stories and some parts are submerged in subterranean water.
Al-Qabari is considered a major archaeological zone because it is home to the necropolis of Alexandria and numerous other ancient tombs have been found there.
The newly discovered tombs do not contain mummies or skeletons and were used to bury citizens who were not high-ranking officials. EFE
© David Hunt, North Carolina State UniversitySkulls from a forensic anthropology lab.
The analysis discovered that up to 1 in 6 skulls exhumed in Scandinavia from the late Stone Age -- between about 6,000 and 3,700 years ago -- had nasty head injuries. And contrary to findings from mass grave sites of the period, women were equally likely to be victims of deadly blows, according to the study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Ancient pastoralists
Linda Fibiger, an archaeologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and her colleagues focused on the late Stone Age, when European hunter-gatherers had transitioned into farming or herding animals.
I am doing research on historic finds across America. Any articles and shared research would be much appreciated as I put together evidence of giant races. Contact me here. Also, If anyone has any personal writings or information on Doctor. P. R Hoy, from Racine, Wisconsin I would be interested in talking to you as well.
My last article to bring awareness of the giant phenomenon has received much attention and my inbox seemed to be full of stories like this one. One contact that reached out to me was Jim Vieira researcher and writer for Ancient American Magazine. We had a discussion about Stone builders, Mound builders and the Giants of Ancient America. Discoveries like this one found in the local Texas newspaper archives. The thought that a race of 18 ft. tall giants would bring some answers to unexplained architecture and legends. Giants appear all throughout history and multiple cultures. I wonder how much a group of these giants could lift? How fast could they row? What else is real?
First let's look at some popular giant characteristics that do not show up on human individuals. These usually are their size, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. This is even mentioned in the Bible 1st Chronicles 20:6. In Amos 2:9, Amos describes them "as tall as cedars", which in most cases is taken as figurative and not literal.
My last article to bring awareness of the giant phenomenon has received much attention and my inbox seemed to be full of stories like this one. One contact that reached out to me was Jim Vieira researcher and writer for Ancient American Magazine. We had a discussion about Stone builders, Mound builders and the Giants of Ancient America. Discoveries like this one found in the local Texas newspaper archives. The thought that a race of 18 ft. tall giants would bring some answers to unexplained architecture and legends. Giants appear all throughout history and multiple cultures. I wonder how much a group of these giants could lift? How fast could they row? What else is real?
First let's look at some popular giant characteristics that do not show up on human individuals. These usually are their size, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. This is even mentioned in the Bible 1st Chronicles 20:6. In Amos 2:9, Amos describes them "as tall as cedars", which in most cases is taken as figurative and not literal.
© Egyptian MuseumThe discovery of jars of wine in King Tuts tomb prompted a team of Spanish scientists to try and determine if the boy king preferred red or white wine. An analysis of residues in 2005 revealed that the jars contained syringic acid, which implied that the wine was made with red grapes.
Recent DNA analyses from the mummies of Tut and his kin revealed that the boy king's parents were siblings. Those results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February 2010, pointed to the "heretic" king Akhenaten and one of his sisters as the mom and dad of Tut.
But researcher Marc Gabolde said in a talk at Harvard University last week that he believes King Tut's mom was Akhenaten's cousin Nefertiti, who was Akhenaten's chief wife and the mother of six of his daughters.
© Wikimedia CommonsA detail of the Prophetia S. Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus by Arnold Wyon.
Attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop canonized in 1190, the Prophecy of the Popes would date to 1139. The document predicted that there would be only 112 more popes before the Last Judgment - and Benedict XVI is 111.
The list of popes originated from a vision Malachy said he received from God when he was in Rome, reporting on his diocese to Pope Innocent II.
The story goes that St. Malachy gave the apocalyptic list to Innocent II and that the document remained unknown in the Vatican Archives some 440 years after Malachy's death in 1148. It was rediscovered and published by Benedictine Arnold de Wyon in 1590.
The prophecy consists of brief, cryptic phrases in Latin about each Pope. It ends with the 112th pope, named "Petrus Romanus" or "Peter the Roman."
According to the premonition, Peter the Roman would "feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the City of the Seven Hills shall be utterly destroyed, and the awful Judge will judge the people."
Often highly enigmatic, several prophetical announcements in the document appear to have come true.
© Peruvian Ministry of CultureThe temple was discovered in one of the wings of the main pyramid at the ancient site of El Paraiso.
Entry to the rectangular structure, estimated to be up to 5,000 years old, was via a narrow passageway, they say.
At its centre, the archaeologists from Peru's Ministry of Culture found a hearth which they believe was used to burn ceremonial offerings.
With 10 ruins, El Paraiso is one of the biggest archaeological sites in central Peru.
The archaeologists found the structure, measuring 6.82m by 8.04m (22ft by 26ft), in the right wing of the main pyramid.
