Remains of a triconch room in a 4th cent. Roman villa in Patti Marina, #Sicily. The room is comprised of three curved apses and a mosaic floor decorated with geometric patterns and animals.
“The fakes created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century tell us another story, one of the rediscovery of the ancient Near East within the Orientalism movement. This fascination about the Orient and the past led certain individuals to create some fantastic stories and theories, such as those published by the writer Zecharia Stichin (1920–2010) who took the mythological battles of gods related in the authentic Babylonian Epic of Creation to be real astronomic phenomena.”
Michel, C. 2020. Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day. In: Michel, C. and Friedrich, M. ed. Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 25-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333-002
“The fakes created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century tell us another story, one of the rediscovery of the ancient Near East within the Orientalism movement. This fascination about the Orient and the past led certain individuals to create some fantastic stories and theories, such as those published by the writer Zecharia Stichin (1920–2010) who took the mythological battles of gods related in the authentic Babylonian Epic of Creation to be real astronomic phenomena.”
Michel, C. 2020. Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day. In: Michel, C. and Friedrich, M. ed. Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 25-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333-002
“The extent to which the worship of Baal and Asherah affected Israel’s understanding of Yahweh is seen in the inscriptions found at Kuntillet Ajrud. Jezebel was not fully responsible for the ongoing worship of Canaanite deities in Israel and Judah but her reign gave legitimacy to the long held tendency.”
Dolan, M. (2024) “Jezebel: A Hebrew Disaster”, Buried History: The Journal of the Australian Institute of Archaeology, 40, pp. 39–48. https://doi.org/10.62614/7d25h288
Found at last: long-lost branch of the Nile that ran by the pyramids
"The highest concentration of pyramids in Egypt can be found in a stretch of desert between Giza and the village of Lisht. These sites are now several dozens of kilometres away from the Nile River. But Egyptologists have long suspected that the Nile might once have been closer to that stretch than it is today.
Satellite images and geological data now confirm that a tributary of the Nile — which researchers have named the Ahramat Branch — used to run near many of the major sites in the region several thousand years ago."
Found at last: long-lost branch of the Nile that ran by the pyramids
“The highest concentration of pyramids in Egypt can be found in a stretch of desert between Giza and the village of Lisht. These sites are now several dozens of kilometres away from the Nile River. But Egyptologists have long suspected that the Nile might once have been closer to that stretch than it is today.
Satellite images and geological data now confirm that a tributary of the Nile — which researchers have named the Ahramat Branch — used to run near many of the major sites in the region several thousand years ago.”
Found at last: long-lost branch of the Nile that ran by the pyramids
“Satellite images and geological data now confirm that a tributary of the Nile — which researchers have named the Ahramat Branch — used to run near many of the major sites in the region several thousand years ago.”
"After a thorough examination, we may conclude that the item’s amateurish preparation and local origin are suggestive of a scribal exercise. The use of an available mould that was not suitable for a tablet, the child’s fingerprint on the reverse and the corrected mistakes in the script all point to an inexperienced scribe."
“After a thorough examination, we may conclude that the item’s amateurish preparation and local origin are suggestive of a scribal exercise. The use of an available mould that was not suitable for a tablet, the child’s fingerprint on the reverse and the corrected mistakes in the script all point to an inexperienced scribe.”
Theft of Bronze Age gold artefacts from UK museum sparks fresh concerns about lack of government investment in sector by Joe Ware #TheArtNewspaper
“The theft of a Bronze Age gold torc and bracelet from a UK institution has sparked calls for greater government investment in the museum sector.
Police are yet to make arrests and are appealing for information to track down two thieves who broke into the Ely Museum, Cambridgeshire, on 7 May and escaped on electric scooters.
With gold prices hitting a record high in recent months experts are worried that the precious artefacts, worth £220,000 in their current form, might be melted down for their scrap metal value.”
🪔 For #FrescoFriday: a wall-painting with a reclining Naiad, drinking from a horn. Dated to AD 30-50, it was found at a Roman villa at Campo Varano, #Stabiae. Now in the BM. 📸 me
🪔 For eyes pleasure: an amber ring from the #Sibenik city museum in Croatia. The Romans believed that amber possessed the ability to ward off evil spirits and protect its wearer from harm 📸 me
"We present a set of large pedigrees, reconstructed using ancient DNA, spanning nine generations and comprising around 300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, in which patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were common. The absence of consanguinity indicates that this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations."
Gnecchi-Ruscone, G.A., Rácz, Z., Samu, L. et al. Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07312-4
"We present a set of large pedigrees, reconstructed using ancient DNA, spanning nine generations and comprising around 300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, in which patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were common. The absence of consanguinity indicates that this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations."
Gnecchi-Ruscone, G.A., Rácz, Z., Samu, L. et al. Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07312-4
Remains of a 6th/7th century basilica in Gortyn on the island of #Crete. Excavators dubbed it the "church of St. Titus" assuming by its size that it was dedicated to the island's patron saint, but the actual dedication is not known.
"Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation within lava tubes for the first time, in the deserts of northern Saudi Arabia."
@newscientist reports the "underground tunnels created by lava flows provided humans with shelter for thousands of years beneath the hot desert landscape."
First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia
"The lava tube does not appear to have served as a permanent habitation location, but rather as a site that likely lay on herding routes and that allowed access to shade and water for passing herders and their animals. Prior to this, as well as during pastoral periods, the lava tube was likely also linked with hunting activities, which probably remained a cornerstone of local economies into the Bronze Age."
Stewart M, Andrieux E, Blinkhorn J, Guagnin M, Fernandes R, et al. (2024) First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia. PLOS ONE 19(4): e0299292. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299292