Crown Suggests Queen Arsinoë II Ruled Ancient Egypt as Female Pharaoh

ScienceDaily

Queen Arsinoë II in the Philae temple, Aswan, Egypt. (Credit: Photo by Maria Nilsson)



A unique queen's crown with ancient symbols combined with a new method of studying status in Egyptian reliefs forms the basis for a re-interpretation of historical developments in Egypt in the period following the death of Alexander the Great. A thesis from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) argues that Queen Arsinoë II ruled ancient Egypt as a female pharaoh, predating Cleopatra by 200 years.

Researchers are largely agreed on Queen Arsinoë II's importance from the day that she was deified. She was put on a level with the ancient goddesses Isis and Hathor, and was still respected and honoured 200 years after her death when her better-known descendant Cleopatra wore the same crown. But the reasons behind Arsinoë's huge influence have been interpreted in many different ways.

Maria Nilsson has studied her historical importance by interpreting her personal crown and its ancient symbols. The crown, which has never been found but is depicted on statues and Egyptian reliefs, was created with the help of the powerful Egyptian priesthood to symbolise the qualities of the queen. The thesis questions the traditional royal line which excludes female regents, and defies some researchers' attempts to minimise Arsinoë's importance while she was still alive.

"My conclusion instead is that Arsinoë was a female pharaoh and high priestess who was equal to and ruled jointly with her brother and husband, and that she was deified during her actual lifetime," says Nilsson. "It was this combination of religion and politics that was behind her long-lived influence."

But it was not only Cleopatra who wanted to re-use Arsinoë's important and symbolic crown. Male descendants -- all named Ptolemy -- used her crown as a template when creating a new crown which they gave to the goddess Hathor to honour the domestic priesthood and so win its support when Egypt was gripped by civil war.

The thesis is clearly structured around the crown and includes its wider context in the reliefs. Nilsson paints an all-round picture of the queen, how she dressed, the gods she was depicted with, the titles she was given, and so on.

The source material comes from Egypt and can be used as a basis for understanding the country's political and religious development. At the same time, Nilsson paves the way for future studies of Egyptian crowns as symbols of power and status, and of the development of art in a more general sense.

"The creation of Queen Arsinoë's crown was just the beginning," she says.

Lost Civilization Under Persian Gulf?

ScienceDaily



A once fertile landmass now submerged beneath the Persian Gulf may have been home to some of the earliest human populations outside Africa, according to an article published in Current Anthropology.

Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist and researcher with the University of Birmingham in the U.K., says that the area in and around this "Persian Gulf Oasis" may have been host to humans for over 100,000 years before it was swallowed up by the Indian Ocean around 8,000 years ago. Rose's hypothesis introduces a "new and substantial cast of characters" to the human history of the Near East, and suggests that humans may have established permanent settlements in the region thousands of years before current migration models suppose.

In recent years, archaeologists have turned up evidence of a wave of human settlements along the shores of the Gulf dating to about 7,500 years ago. "Where before there had been but a handful of scattered hunting camps, suddenly, over 60 new archaeological sites appear virtually overnight," Rose said. "These settlements boast well-built, permanent stone houses, long-distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world."

But how could such highly developed settlements pop up so quickly, with no precursor populations to be found in the archaeological record? Rose believes that evidence of those preceding populations is missing because it's under the Gulf.

"Perhaps it is no coincidence that the founding of such remarkably well developed communities along the shoreline corresponds with the flooding of the Persian Gulf basin around 8,000 years ago," Rose said. "These new colonists may have come from the heart of the Gulf, displaced by rising water levels that plunged the once fertile landscape beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean."

Historical sea level data show that, prior to the flood, the Gulf basin would have been above water beginning about 75,000 years ago. And it would have been an ideal refuge from the harsh deserts surrounding it, with fresh water supplied by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and Wadi Baton Rivers, as well as by underground springs. When conditions were at their driest in the surrounding hinterlands, the Gulf Oasis would have been at its largest in terms of exposed land area. At its peak, the exposed basin would have been about the size of Great Britain, Rose says.

Evidence is also emerging that modern humans could have been in the region even before the oasis was above water. Recently discovered archaeological sites in Yemen and Oman have yielded a stone tool style that is distinct from the East African tradition. That raises the possibility that humans were established on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula beginning as far back as 100,000 years ago or more, Rose says. That is far earlier than the estimates generated by several recent migration models, which place the first successful migration into Arabia between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago.

The Gulf Oasis would have been available to these early migrants, and would have provided "a sanctuary throughout the Ice Ages when much of the region was rendered uninhabitable due to hyperaridity," Rose said. "The presence of human groups in the oasis fundamentally alters our understanding of human emergence and cultural evolution in the ancient Near East."

It also hints that vital pieces of the human evolutionary puzzle may be hidden in the depths of the Persian Gulf.

Ancient Egypt's Pyramids: Norwegian Researcher Unlocks Construction Secrets

ScienceDaily


Scientists from around the world have tried to understand how the Egyptians erected their giant pyramids. Now, an architect and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says he has the answer to this ancient, unsolved puzzle.

Researchers have been so preoccupied by the weight of the stones that they tend to overlook two major problems: How did the Egyptians know exactly where to put the enormously heavy building blocks? And how was the master architect able to communicate detailed, highly precise plans to a workforce of 10,000 illiterate men?

A 7-million-ton structure

These were among the questions that confronted Ole J. Bryn, an architect and associate professor in NTNU's Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art when he began examining Khufu's Great Pyramid in Giza. Khufu's pyramid, better known as the Pyramid of Cheops, consists of 2.3 million limestone blocks weighing roughly 7 million tons. At 146.6 meters high, it held the record as the tallest structure ever built for nearly 4000 years.

What Bryn discovered was quite simple. He believes that the Egyptians invented the modern building grid, by separating the structure's measuring system from the physical building itself, thus introducing tolerance, as it is called in today's engineering and architectural professions.

The apex point a key

Bryn has studied the plans from the thirty oldest Egyptian pyramids, and discovered a precision system that made it possible for the Egyptians to reach the pyramid's last and highest point, the apex point, with an impressive degree of accuracy. By exploring and making a plan of the pyramid it is possible to prepare modern project documentation of not just one, but all pyramids from any given period.

As long as the architect knows the main dimensions of a pyramid, he can project the building as he would have done it with a modern building, but with building methods and measurements known from the ancient Egypt, Bryn says.

In a scientific article published May 2010 in the Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, Bryn discusses aspects that can explain the construction of a multitude of the Egyptian pyramids by taking the building grid, and not the physical building itself, as the starting point for the analysis.

A new map

If the principles behind Bryn's drawings are correct, then archaeologists will have a new "map" that demonstrates that the pyramids are not a "bunch of heavy rocks with unknown structures" but, rather, incredibly precise structures.

Ole J. Bryn's findings will be presented and explained at the exhibition The Apex Point in Trondheim from September 13th to October 1st. The exhibition is an official part of the program to celebrate the centenary (1910-2010) of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

About the author:

Ole J. Bryn is a former practising architect, and currently holds a position as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.

The development of Bryn's theories on the building grids used in Egyptian pyramids has benefited from cooperation with Dr. Michel Barsoum, Grosvenor and Distinguished Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia.

Goddess of Fortune' Found Near Shores of Sea of Galilee

ScienceDaily


A wall painting (fresco) of Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, was exposed during the 11th season of excavation at the Sussita site, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee, which was conducted by researchers of the University of Haifa. Another female figure was found during this season, of a maenad, one of the companions of the wine god Dionysus.

"It is interesting to see that although the private residence in which two goddesses were found was in existence during the Byzantine period, when Christianity negated and eradicated idolatrous cults, one can still find clear evidence of earlier beliefs," said Prof. Arthur Segal and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, who headed the excavation.

The city of Sussita is located within the Sussita National Park under the management of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which has accompanied and assisted the excavation teams this season in enabling the continuation of excavation work and the conservation of the archaeological finds.

During the course of the excavations conducted by the team from the University of Concordia under the direction of Prof. Mark Schuler, in a residence that appeared, by the quality and complexity of its construction, to belong to one of the city notables, the excavators reached an inner courtyard with a small fountain at its center. Near the fountain they found a fresco of Tyche, who was apparently deified as the city's goddess of fortune. Her head is crowned, her youthful gaze is focused, and she has abundant brown hair beneath her crown. According to the researchers, artistic analysis has indicated that the wall painting may be dated to the end of the Roman period or the beginning of the Byzantine period (3rd-4th centuries C.E.).

The goddess Tyche was not the only mythological figure to be discovered in this compound. Found on a bone plate was a wonderfully etched relief of a maenad, one of a group of female followers of Dionysus, the god of wine. According to Greek mythology, the maenads accompanied Dionysus with frenzied dances while holding a thyrsus, a device symbolizing sexuality, fertility, and the male sexual organ associated with sexual pleasure. The maenad of Sussita was also depicted as being in the midst of a frenzied dance. The researchers believe that both manifestations of the cult of Graeco-Roman female goddesses can be dated to the end of the Roman period, but there is no doubt that the residence in which they were found continued to exist even after Christianity triumphed over idolatry.

In this season the city's Roman period basilica (1st-2nd centuries CE) began to be exposed. This is a large-sized building that incorporated the city's central commercial, social and judicial areas. Besides the excellent architectural marble items that were unearthed there, the researchers also found decorations made of "stucco," molded plaster used in the imitation of marble. "We could not fail to wonder how a relatively plebeian city could employ first-class builders and artisans. The stucco decorations demonstrate that despite everything, the city rulers were certainly not sparing of the costs and expenditure of construction," the researchers noted.

Sussita was erected on a mountain top rising to the east of the Sea of Galilee during the 2nd century B.C.E. by the Seleucid rulers who then controlled the country. The city existed during the Hellenist, Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods, until it was destroyed by a violent earthquake in the year 749 C.E. Together with Beth Shean and other cities on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, Sussita was one of the cultural-geographical group of Decapolis cities -- a region within which Jesus conducted some of the miracles described in the New Testament.

Apollo Discovery Tells a New Story

ScienceDaily

A rare bronze signet ring with the impression of the face of the Greek sun god, Apollo, has been discovered at Tel Dor, in northern Israel, by University of Haifa diggers.

"A piece of high-quality art such as this, doubtlessly created by a top-of-the-line artist, indicates that local elites developing a taste for fine art and the ability to afford it were also living in provincial towns, and not only in the capital cities of the Hellenistic kingdoms," explains Dr. Ayelet Gilboa, Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, who headed the excavations at Dor along with Dr. Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

When the ring was recovered from a waste pit near Hellenistic structures, it was covered with layers of earth and corrosion, and the archaeologists had no indication whatsoever that it would reveal the shape of a legendary figure. Only after the ring was cleaned up at the Restoration and Conservation laboratory at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, was the profile of a beardless young male with long hair, clean shaven and adorned with a laurel wreath, revealed. The ring was examined by Dr. Jessica Nitschke, professor of classical archaeology at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and by Dr. Rebecca Martin, assistant professor of art at Southeast Missouri State University, both of whom are partners in the Tel Dor excavations. Both confirmed that the image is that of Apollo -- one of the most important of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology, god of the sun, of light, music and song.

The archaeological context and style of the signet ring date it back to the 4th or 3rd century B.C.E. This type of ring was used as a seal or was dedicated to the temple of the god imprinted on the ring. Since it was found in an urban context and at an orderly archaeological dig, the discovery is of great significance: Most of the small pieces of art originating in the Near East until now are of unknown origin, having been displaced through illegal antique trade, or purchased by museums and collectors before scientific archaeological research began.

The ring also testifies to the cosmopolitan character of this region as far back as 2,300 years ago. Despite the damage caused over the centuries, its high quality is easily recognizable. The precious object was found in the same area as a small gemstone with an engraved image of Alexander the Great and a rare, exquisite Hellenistic mosaic floor that were unearthed during earlier excavation seasons. All these discoveries are very likely to be linked to a nearby structure which is currently being excavated, the architectural features of which indicate that it is a grand elite structure.

These finds indicate that the circulation of fine art objects was not limited to the capital cities of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, such as Alexandria in Egypt or Antioch and Seleucia in Syria, where the main populations were Greek, but also spread to smaller centers, such as Dor, which was primarily populated by local Phoenician inhabitants.

The town of Dor was an important port on the Mediterranean shore from 2000 B.C.E. until 250 C.E. Pieces of Greek-style art, such as signet rings and miniature gems, began to appear in the east at the time of the Persian Empire (6th-4th centuries B.C.E.) and became more common after Alexander the Great conquered the region, passing through Dor on his journey from Tyre to Egypt in 332 B.C.E. Subsequently, the town of Dor became one of the centers of Greek culture in the land of Israel, and that culture left its mark even after Dor was conquered by Alexander Jannaeus, King of Judea, around 100 B.C.E. and its impact is evident well into the Roman era.

Tel Dor is located next to the Dor (Tantura) beach, between Haifa and Tel Aviv. It has been excavated continuously for some thirty years and is in the process of being declared a National Park by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. University of Haifa and Hebrew University teams collaborate in the excavations, along with a team headed by Prof. Sarah Stroup of the University of Washington in Seattle and a team directed by Dr. Elizabeth Bloch-Smith of St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia. Some 130 researchers, students and volunteers from Israel and the U.S.A. participated in the 2010 season of excavations. The ring was discovered in an excavation area directed by Yiftah Shalev and Hagar Ben-Best, a PhD candidate and a graduate student of the University of Haifa's Department of Archaeology. The Tel Dor excavations are supported by the Goldhirsh Foundation, USA, by the Berman Foundation for Biblical Archaeology and by the Israel Science Foundation.

Oldest Roman Baths in Asia Minor Discovered in Sagalassos

ScienceDaily

Professor Marc Waelkens' archaeological team has discovered the oldest Roman baths in Asia Minor known to date in Sagalassos, Turkey. Sagalassos was inhabited as a city until the 7^th century AD, when it was destroyed by earthquakes. Waelkens has directed excavations at the sight every summer for the past 21 years.

Until now, the Capito Baths in Miletus, built during the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), were considered the oldest known Roman bathing complex in Asia Minor. This summer, however, in addition to the previously unearthed Imperial Baths (ca. 120-165 AD -- with a surface area of more than 5,000 square metres), a second bathing complex was discovered in Sagalassos, below the remains of the Imperial Baths. It is much older and smaller than the Imperial Baths and is dated to 10-30 AD, though it was probably built somewhat earlier, during the reign of Augustus or Tiberius. The complex measures 32.5 by 40 metres and is far better preserved than was originally thought. The walls must have been at least 12 metres high, of which 8.5 metres remain erect today.

These Old Baths were replaced by the larger Imperial Baths, when Hadrian selected Sagalassos as the centre of the Imperial cult for all of Pisidia, to which the city belonged. This included the organisation of festivals and games (agones), which attracted thousands, so that a new urban infrastructure became necessary in order to accommodate the Pisidian visitors to these events.

The Roman and Italian bathing habits consisted of a succession of a warm water pool, a hot water pool and a cold water pool. Each pool was housed in a separate space; a 'tepidarium', a 'caldarium' and a 'frigidarium', respectively. The latter usually contained a pool (a 'piscina' or 'natatio').

Excavations this past summer also revealed the façade of an important public building dating from the reign of Emperor Augustus (25 BC -- 14 AD). It may have been the town hall of Sagalassos. Furthermore, it was concluded that the triumphal arch, hitherto thought to pay tribute to Caligula, was actually erected in honour of his uncle and successor Claudius (41-54 AD) and Claudius' brother Germanicus, Caligula's father.

At the end of the season's excavations, an Antonine Nymphaeum (monumental fountain) was inaugurated at the site.

The approx. 3 metre high south wall of the heating room of the bathing complex. Warm air was blown under the floor of the middle apsidal space or ‘caldarium’ (hot water pool). (Credit: Image courtesy of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Experts question claim that Alexander the Great's half-brother is buried at Vergina

eurekalert.org

The tomb was discovered during the excavation of a large mound – the Great Tumulus – at Vergina in 1977. Along with many treasures including ceremonial military equipment, bronze utensils, silver tableware, and gold wreaths, the tomb contained two sets of skeletal remains. Those of a man were found in a gold casket in the main chamber and those of a woman in a smaller gold casket in the second chamber. Both individuals had been cremated and evidence of a wooden funerary house containing a pyre was also found near the tomb.

Dr Jonathan Musgrave of the University of Bristol's Centre for Comparative and Clinical Anatomy and colleagues argue that evidence from the remains is not consistent with historical records of the life, death and burial of Arrhidaios, a far less prominent figure in the ancient world than his father Philip II.

The male skull appears to have a healed fracture on the right cheekbone and a marked asymmetry in the wall of the right maxillary sinus. History records that Philip II lost his right eye at the siege of Methone in 355-4 BC – an injury which would be consistent with this damage to the skeleton.

The colour and fracture lines of the bones suggest they were cremated 'green' (with flesh still around them) rather than 'dry' (after the flesh had been decomposed by burial). Arrhidaios was murdered in the autumn of 317 BC; his remains, some suggest, were subsequently exhumed and reburied between four and 17 months later. However, the existence of the funeral pyre indicates that the bodies were cremated at Vergina. As Greek beliefs would never have countenanced contact with a decomposing corpse, Arrhidaios would not have been exhumed, moved and then cremated 'green'.

From the historical account of their deaths and committals, it is thought that Arrhidaios was buried along with his wife Eurydice and her mother Kynna. However, the tomb contains remains from only two individuals. The female remains belong to a woman aged between 20 and 30 whereas Eurydice seems to have been no more than 19 years old when she died.

Dr Musgrave said: "The aim of this paper is not to press the claims of Philip II and his wife Cleopatra but to draw attention to the flaws in those for Philip III Arrhidaios and Eurydice. We do not believe that the condition of the bones and the circumstances of their interment are consistent with descriptions of the funeral of Arrhidaios, his wife and his mother-in-law."

Inscriptions found in ancient Pompeipolis city in Turkey

WorldBulletin

New inscriptions were unearthed during excavations in Pompeipolis ancient city in Taskopru in the northern province of Kastamonu.

Prof. Dr. Christian Marek, who has been examining inscriptions uncovered in Pompeipolis, told the AA correspondent that inscriptions were about festivals of Roman era.

Marek said that according to inscriptions, Roman emperors also participated in these festivals, most of which were religious. Marek said several competitions, shows and plays had been held within the scope of these festivals which had been started by Roman Emperor Alexander Severus.

Prof. Latife Summerer, a lecturer from Munich University, said that information on inscriptions were important and more would be uncovered in excavations in the ancient city.

The antique city of Pompeipolis is situated in the county of Taskopru of the province of Kastamonu. According to the historical records, the Romans after winning the battle against Mitridates. Pontus Pilate and his army in the northern valley of Gökirmak in 64 B.C. settled in this region. The Roman commander Pompeius built a city out of scratch on Zimbilli Hill and called the city Pompeipolis.

The antique city of Pompeipolis was discovered by Pascal T. Fourcade, who was the French consul during 1802 to 1812 at Sinop. It is claimed by the American and European archaeologists that the antique city of Pompeipolis is wealthier and bigger than the antique city of Ephesus in Izmir. The giant columns and the mosaic decorations found in the excavations conducted for the first time in 1910 in the antique city of Pompeipolis, remaining from the Byzantine era, were destroyed in the reconstruction of the town of Taskopru after four-thirds of the town was damaged by fire in the year 1927. The historical artifacts found in the excavations conducted by the governorate of Kastamonu in 1974 were placed in the Kastamonu Archaeological Museum for safekeeping. The excavation of Pompeipolis started again in the year 2006 under the leadership of Dr. Latife Summerer of the German Munich University.

As the archaeological excavation of Pompeipolis continues, a town museum or an archaeological museum must be built in Taskopru to protect and exhibit the artifacts discovered. With the historical artifacts to be discovered, the antique city of Pompeipolis will be the door opening the Black Sea to the world. If the antique city is well promoted and if the necessary investments for tourist visits are made, Pompeipolis, just like Ephesus and Zeugma, will become the symbol of the Black Sea within a short period of time and its name will take place among the sites to be visited in international tourism.

World's oldest palace Aslantepe Tumulus in Turkey to be open air museum

WorldBulletin

The oldest palace of the world which is in Aslantepe Tumulus dated back to 5,000 B.C. in eastern province of Malatya will become an open air museum.

Prof. Marcella Frangipane, Lecturer of Italian La Spienza University and chief of excavations in Aslantepe, told A.A correspondent that the adobe palace, dated back to the 3300 B.C., was the oldest palace of the world.

Frangipane said they aimed at showing how the state started and how the city system was to the humanity. He also said a road would be constructed to bring the tourists to the museum.

The Professor said the museum could be opened next June, noting there would be a guide to give information about the museum.

Frangipane said the palace was demolished after a fire noting they covered the ceiling of the palace with a roof. "The palace is comprised of a complex structure formed by different rooms. We constructed a roof on every building forming the palace. People looking from the roof can see old buildings. Restoration continues at points to protect the walls of the palace," he said.

"The project will be concluded this year. Only details remained. The excavation team prepared the project. We want the palace to remain as original," Frangipane said.

Frangipane said there were archeological layers at the bottom of the palace, noting that they were careful in protecting those layers.

"The roof is very heavy. There is heavy snow in Malatya in winter. As there will be the load of winter, all the legs carrying the roof are made up of iron and metal," he said.

"The civilization of those times ended with a fire. All the findings were left at the bottom of the palace. The findings unearthed in excavations are in Malatya museum.

The seals unearthed in excavations reveal that there was bureaucracy at those times and the state system started. There were many civil servants," Frangipane said.

Frangipane said the first palace was not only a temple but there were several other buildings there, "there are warehouses, a court, corridors and a temple."

Frangipane said the palace in Aslantepe Tumulus was important for the whole humanity.

New findings in Turkey's Smyrna Ancient City excavations

WorldBulletin

Archeologists unearthed two new findings during excavations in Smyrna Ancient City in Turkey's western province of Izmir.

A bath belonging to Roman period, and the head of a statue dating back to 2nd century A.D. were unearthed during excavations which are pursued by Dokuz Eylul University and Culture & Tourism Ministry, and supported by TOTAL.

Archeologists unearthed a part of "caldarium" and also found "hypocaust system" of the bath.

The ancient city is located at two sites within Izmir. While the first site, likely to have started as a native foundation, rose to prominence during the Archaic Period as one of the principal ancient Greek settlements in western Anatolia, the second, whose foundation is associated with Alexander the Great, reached metropolitan proportions especially during the period of the Roman Empire, from which time and particularly from after a 2nd century AD earthquake, most of the present-day remains date.

Ancient fountain in Turkey met with water after centuries

WorldBulletin

A historical fountain, which is one of the major artifacts of an ancient city located in Turkey's western Burdur province, was re-opened after a restoration process that lasted 13 years.

Speaking at a ceremony held at the Sagalassos ancient city to mark the opening of the 1,800 year-old "Antoninen Nymphaeum", Turkish Culture & Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay said all the historical artifacts on Turkish territory, regardless of the eras they belonged to, were the heritage of Anatolia.

"Today, without separating one from another, we are trying to protect all the artifacts just like Sagalassos and to carry them to future as the common property of humanity," Gunay said.

Delivering a speech at the gathering, Marc Waelkens, who has been the head of the excavations at Sagalassos for 25 years, said that he had given all his energy and health to this ancient city.

"However, Sagalassos made me experience the most beautiful days of my life," the archaeologist said.

The restoration process of the historical fountain "Antoninen Nymphaeum" was carried out jointly by Turkish gas distributor Aygaz, Belgium's Leuven University and several Belgian institutions.

The 28-meter wide and 9-meter tall fountain collapsed after a major earthquake around the year 650.

The restoration work at the ancient site started in 1998, and after nearly 13 years, the fountain met with water again.

World's oldest palace Aslantepe Tumulus in Turkey to be open air museum

WorldBulletin

The oldest palace of the world which is in Aslantepe Tumulus dated back to 5,000 B.C. in eastern province of Malatya will become an open air museum.

The oldest palace of the world which is in Aslantepe Tumulus dated back to 5,000 B.C. in eastern province of Malatya will become an open air museum.

Prof. Marcella Frangipane, Lecturer of Italian La Spienza University and chief of excavations in Aslantepe, told A.A correspondent that the adobe palace, dated back to the 3300 B.C., was the oldest palace of the world.

Frangipane said they aimed at showing how the state started and how the city system was to the humanity. He also said a road would be constructed to bring the tourists to the museum.

The Professor said the museum could be opened next June, noting there would be a guide to give information about the museum.

Frangipane said the palace was demolished after a fire noting they covered the ceiling of the palace with a roof. "The palace is comprised of a complex structure formed by different rooms. We constructed a roof on every building forming the palace. People looking from the roof can see old buildings. Restoration continues at points to protect the walls of the palace," he said.

"The project will be concluded this year. Only details remained. The excavation team prepared the project. We want the palace to remain as original," Frangipane said.

Frangipane said there were archeological layers at the bottom of the palace, noting that they were careful in protecting those layers.

"The roof is very heavy. There is heavy snow in Malatya in winter. As there will be the load of winter, all the legs carrying the roof are made up of iron and metal," he said.

"The civilization of those times ended with a fire. All the findings were left at the bottom of the palace. The findings unearthed in excavations are in Malatya museum.

The seals unearthed in excavations reveal that there was bureaucracy at those times and the state system started. There were many civil servants," Frangipane said.

Frangipane said the first palace was not only a temple but there were several other buildings there, "there are warehouses, a court, corridors and a temple."

Frangipane said the palace in Aslantepe Tumulus was important for the whole humanity.

Turkish archeologists find 4,000 year-old trade deal in Anatolia

WorldBulletin

Archeologists have unearthed the tablets of first written trade agreement in Anatolia.

Professor Cahit Gunbatti of Ankara University's Faculty of Letters, History and Geography said the first written trade agreement in Anatolia was made 4,000 years ago.

"We have discovered the cuneiform-script tablets in Kultepe-Karum excavations in (the Central Anatolian province of) Kayseri," Gunbatti told AA correspondent.

Archeologists have been carrying out excavations in Karum hamlet near Kultepe tumulus, where Assyrians used to live, since 1948. They have unearthed some 23,000 cuneiform-script tablets so far.

"Around 4,500 tablets have been smuggled abroad since 1948," Gunbatti said. Gunbatti said Assyrian tradesmen who settled in the region 4,000 years ago sold the tin and fabrics they brought from Mesopotamia.

The two tablets indicated that the oldest trade agreement in Anatolia was made 4,000 years ago, Gunbatti said.

"The Assyrian Kingdom in Mesopotamia made written trade agreements with Kanesh Kingdom and Hahhum Kingdom near Adiyaman," he said.

Kultepe is a modern village near the ancient city of Kanesh, located in Kayseri.

Kanesh, inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic period down to Roman times, flourished most strongly as an important merchant colony (karum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC. A late (c 1400 BC) witness to an old tradition includes a king of Kanesh called Zipani among seventeen local city-kings who rose up against the Akkadian Naram-Sin (ruled c.2254-2218).

It is the site of discovery of the earliest traces of the Hittite language, and the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BC.

Ancient wall found around Temple of Apollo in western Turkey

Hürriyet Daily News

The ancient wall was found around the Temple of Apollo in Didim.

An ancient wall has been found as part of excavation work that started after an illegal excavation around the Apollo Temple in the Didim district of the Aegean province of Aydın. The wall is thought to be part of the Temple of Artemis, the twin of Apollo.

Culture and Tourism Ministry representative Ferhan Büyükyörük said that during work this year the excavation team searched for the continuation of the wall and another structure around it. “We believe that the wall may be the wall of the Temple of Artemis, but it is too early to say so definitely. We need one or two years to understand it completely. The material inside the wall should be examined thoroughly,” she said.

Didyma excavation restoration head and German archaeologist Christoph Kronewirth complained about the preservation conditions of the Temple of Apollo, saying that the temple had been exposed to hard natural conditions like earthquakes as well as looters and tourists over time. He said there were two officials at the entrance to the temple but no watchman inside. “The lack of control in the temple is a big deficit in the preservation there.”

As for the restoration work, Kronewirth said excavations started in July at the temple and continued with a team of seven people.

Excavation head Andreas Furtwangler said the first excavations around the Temple of Apollo started 104 years ago, adding that this year’s season would continue for two months.

Archaeologists uncover 3,500-year-old Egypt city

Reuters

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 3,500-year-old settlement in one of Egypt's desert oases that predates earlier cities by a millennium, the Ministry of Culture said Wednesday.

The Yale University mission excavating in Umm El-Kharga Oasis, one of Egypt's five western deserts, located some 200 km south of Cairo, stumbled upon the find while working to map ancient routes in the Western Desert.

The settlement lies along what used to be bustling caravan routes connecting the Nile Valley of Egypt with the western oasis and stretching to Darfur in Sudan, the statement said. The site reached its peak in the late Middle Kingdom (1786-1665 BC).

Remnants of an ancient bakery such as two ovens and a potters wheel used to make ceramic bread moulds in which bread was baked were also found, suggesting the site was a major food center, said mission head John Darnell.

Robot to explore mysterious tunnels in Great Pyramid

The Independent

For 4,500 years, no one has known what lies beyond two stone doors deep inside the monument

For 4,500 years, the Great Pyramid at Giza has enthralled, fascinated and ultimately frustrated everyone who has attempted to penetrate its secrets.

Now a robotics team from Leeds University, working with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, is preparing a machine which they hope will solve one of its enduring mysteries.

The pyramid, known as the Pyramid of Khufu after the king who built it around 2,560BC, is the only wonder of the ancient world still standing. At its heart are two rooms known as the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber. Two shafts rise from the King's Chamber at 45-degree angles and lead to the exterior of the monument. They are believed to be a passageway designed to fire the king's spirit into the firmament so that he can take his place among the stars.

In the Queen's Chamber, there are two further shafts, discovered in 1872. Unlike those in the King's Chamber, these do not lead to the outer face of the pyramid

No one knows what the shafts are for. In 1992, a camera sent up the shaft leading from the south wall of the Queen's Chamber discovered it was blocked after 60 metres by a limestone door with two copper handles. In 2002, a further expedition drilled through this door and revealed, 20 centimetres behind it, a second door.

"The second door is unlike the first. It looks as if it is screening or covering something," said Dr Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council who is in charge of the expedition. The north shaft bends by 45 degrees after 18 metres but, after 60 metres, is also blocked by a limestone door.

Now technicians at Leeds University are putting the finishing touches to a robot which, they hope, will follow the shaft to its end. Known as the Djedi project, after the magician whom Khufu consulted when planning the pyramid, the robot will be able to drill through the second set of doors to see what lies beyond.

Dr Robert Richardson, of the Leeds University School of Mechanical Engineering, said they would continue the expedition until they reach the end of the shafts.

"We have been working on the project for five years," he said. "We have no preconceptions. We are trying to gain evidence for other people to draw conclusions. There are two shafts. The north shaft is blocked by a limestone door and nothing has penetrated that door. With the south shaft a previous team has measured the thickness of the stone, drilled through it and put a camera through it and found there was another surface. We are going to determine how thick that is and we could drill through it. We are preparing the robot now and expect to send it up before the end of the year. It's a big question, and it's very important not to cause unnecessary damage. We will carry on until we find the answer. We hope to get all the data possible which will be sufficient to answer the questions."

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Illegal excavation reveals an important discovery in Bodrum

Hurriyet Daily News

The Tourism and Culture Ministry started a research investigation into an illegal excavation which took place in the Zeus Karios area in Milas, Bodrum. The illegal excavation revealed the large tomb stone of King Hekataios.

The tomb stone was made in 390 B.C. and it is said that the discovery is one of the most important archeological discovery in modern times.

Speaking after the research, Undersecretariat of Culture and Tourism Ministry Özgür Özarslan said: "The discovery revealed that the tomb stone belongs to Hekataios's father Mausolos. Mausolos was the satrap of Karia."

The tomb stone is thought to have been created some 2,400 years before. "However, currently, we need to work on the stone. It is damaged. We will analyze this event," said Özarslan.

"Even with its damaged parts the tomb stone is one of the most important archeological discoveries of all times. It has a very rare and precious workmanship."

"The tomb stone could be as precious as Great Alexander's, which is exhibited at the Istanbul Archeology Museum," said Özarslan, adding that the relic first had to be saved. "The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will deal with that issue," he said.

"The tomb stone has a length of 2.75 meters and a width of 1.85 meters," said Culture and Tourism Ministry Properties and Museums Managing Director Murat Süslü.

"The tomb stone is huge. However the most important thing about this discovery lies behind to whom it belongs," he added.

The tomb stone belongs to Mausolos's father and Mausolos's tomb is already a wonder of the ancient world.

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Obsidian used as ancient scalpel found in Turkeys Samsun

Hurriyet Daily News

A piece of obsidian (volcanic glass) dating back 4,000 years and believed to have been used as a scalpel for surgery has been unearthed during excavations carried out in the Black Sea province of Samsun.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Professor Önder Bilgi, the chairman of the excavations, said that the work in the ruins of the 0 kiztepe village in Samsun's Bafra district had begun in 1974.

"During this year's excavations, which started July 15, we discovered a piece of obsidian that was used as a scalpel in surgeries. Obsidian beds are generally situated in the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia. We think obsidian was brought to this region through trade," Bilgi said. "As this stone is very sharp and hygienic, it was [likely] used as a scalpel in brain surgeries. Glass scalpels are still available."

The excavations have also revealed that there was continuous settlement in the region between 4000 B.C. and 1700 B.C.

Weapons, devices, ovens and ornaments were unearthed separately during the excavations, showing that the inhabitants of the 0 kiztepe region played an important role in the development of mining in Anatolia.

Some of the findings discovered in the excavations are being displayed at the Samsun Archaeology Museum.

Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved?

National Geographic

Sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 2008.

Photograprh by Baz Ratner, Reuters

The recent decoding of a cryptic cup, the excavation of ancient Jerusalem tunnels, and other archaeological detective work may help solve one of the great biblical mysteries: Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The new clues hint that the scrolls, which include some of the oldest known biblical documents, may have been the textual treasures of several groups, hidden away during wartime—and may even be "the great treasure from the Jerusalem Temple," which held the Ark of the Covenant, according to the Bible.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered more than 60 years ago in seaside caves near an ancient settlement called Qumran. The conventional wisdom is that a breakaway Jewish sect called the Essenes—thought to have occupied Qumran during the first centuries B.C. and A.D.—wrote all the parchment and papyrus scrolls.

But new research suggests many of the Dead Sea Scrolls originated elsewhere and were written by multiple Jewish groups, some fleeing the circa-A.D. 70 Roman siege that destroyed the legendary Temple in Jerusalem.

"Jews wrote the Scrolls, but it may not have been just one specific group. It could have been groups of different Jews," said Robert Cargill, an archaeologist who appears in the documentary Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, which airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. (The National Geographic Channel is part-owned by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)

The new view is by no means the consensus, however, among Dead Sea Scrolls scholars.

"I have a feeling it's going to be very disputed," said Lawrence Schiffman, a professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University (NYU).

Dead Sea Scrolls Written by Ritual Bathers?

In 1953, a French archaeologist and Catholic priest named Roland de Vaux led an international team to study the mostly Hebrew scrolls, which a Bedouin shepherd had discovered in 1947.

De Vaux concluded that the scrolls' authors had lived in Qumran, because the 11 scroll caves are close to the site.

Ancient Jewish historians had noted the presence of Essenes in the Dead Sea region, and de Vaux argued Qumran was one of their communities after his team uncovered numerous remains of pools that he believed to be Jewish ritual baths.

His theory appeared to be supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves, some of which contained guidelines for communal living that matched ancient descriptions of Essene customs.

"The scrolls describe communal dining and ritual bathing instructions consistent with Qumran's archaeology," explained Cargill, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dead Sea Scrolls: "Great Treasure From the Temple"?

Recent findings by Yuval Peleg, an archaeologist who has excavated Qumran for 16 years, are challenging long-held notions of who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Artifacts discovered by Peleg's team during their excavations suggest Qumran once served as an ancient pottery factory. The supposed baths may have actually been pools to capture and separate clay.

And on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, archaeologists recently discovered and deciphered a two-thousand-year-old cup with the phrase "Lord, I have returned" inscribed on its sides in a cryptic code similar to one used in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

To some experts, the code suggests that religious leaders from Jerusalem authored at least some of the scrolls.

"Priests may have used cryptic texts to encode certain texts from nonpriestly readers," Cargill told National Geographic News.

According to an emerging theory, the Essenes may have actually been Jerusalem Temple priests who went into self-imposed exile in the second century B.C., after kings unlawfully assumed the role of high priest.

This group of rebel priests may have escaped to Qumran to worship God in their own way. While there, they may have written some of the texts that would come to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Essenes may not have abandoned all of their old ways at Qumran, however, and writing in code may have been one of the practices they preserved.

It's possible too that some of the scrolls weren't written at Qumran but were instead spirited away from the Temple for safekeeping, Cargill said.

"I think it dramatically changes our understanding of the Dead Sea Scrolls if we see them as documents produced by priests," he says in the new documentary.

"Gone is the Ark of the Covenant. We're never going to find Noah's Ark, the Holy Grail. These things, we're never going to see," he added. "But we just may very well have documents from the Temple in Jerusalem. It would be the great treasure from the Jerusalem Temple."

(Also see "King Herod's Tomb Unearthed Near Jerusalem, Expert Says.")

Dead Sea Scrolls From Far and Wide?

Many modern archaeologists such as Cargill believe the Essenes authored some, but not all, of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Recent archeological evidence suggests disparate Jewish groups may have passed by Qumran around A.D. 70, during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, which destroyed the Temple and much of the rest of the city.

A team led by Israeli archaeologist Ronnie Reich recently discovered ancient sewers beneath Jerusalem. In those sewers they found artifacts—including pottery and coins—that they dated to the time of the siege. (Related: "Underground Tunnels Found in Israel Used In Ancient Jewish Revolt.")

The finds suggest that the sewers may have been used as escape routes by Jews, some of whom may have been smuggling out cherished religious scrolls, according to Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Importantly, the sewers lead to the Valley of Kidron. From there it's only a short distance to the Dead Sea—and Qumran.

The jars in which the scrolls were found may provide additional evidence that the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of disparate sects' texts.

Jan Gunneweg of Hebrew University in Jerusalem performed chemical analysis on vessel fragments from the Qumran-area caves.

"We take a piece of ceramic, we grind it, we send it to a nuclear reactor, where it's bombarded with neutrons, then we can measure the chemical fingerprint of the clay of which the pottery was made," Gunneweg says in the documentary.

"Since there is no clay on Earth with the exact chemical composition—it is like DNA—you can point to a specific area and say this pottery was made here, that pottery was made over here."

Gunneweg's conclusion: Only half of the pottery that held the Dead Sea Scrolls is local to Qumran.

Scroll Theory "Rejected by Everyone"

Not everyone agrees with the idea that Dead Sea Scrolls may hail from beyond Qumran.

"I don't buy it," said NYU's Schiffman, who added that the idea of the scrolls being written by multiple Jewish groups from Jerusalem has been around since the 1950s.

"The Jerusalem theory has been rejected by virtually everyone in the field," he said.

"The notion that someone brought a bunch of scrolls together from some other location and deposited them in a cave is very, very unlikely," Schiffman added.

"The reason is that most of the [the scrolls] fit a coherent theme and hang together.

"If the scrolls were brought from some other place, presumably by some other groups of Jews, you would expect to find items that fit the ideologies of groups that are in disagreement with [the Essenes]. And it's not there," said Schiffman, who dismisses interpretations that link some Dead Sea Scroll writings to groups such as the Zealots.

UCLA's Cargill agrees with Schiffman that the Dead Sea Scrolls show "a tremendous amount of congruence of ideology, messianic expectation, interpretation of scripture, [Jewish law] interpretation, and calendrical dates.

"At the same time," Cargill said, "it is difficult to explain some of the ideological diversity present within some of the scrolls if one argues that all of the scrolls were composed by a single sectarian group at Qumran."

Caves Were for Temporary Scroll Storage?

If Cargill and others are correct, it would mean that what modern scholars call the Dead Sea Scrolls are not wholly the work of isolated scribes.

Instead they may be the unrecovered treasures of terrified Jews who did not—or could not—return to reclaim what they entrusted to the desert for safekeeping.

"Whoever wrote them, the scrolls were considered scripture by their owners, and much care was taken to ensure their survival," Cargill said.

"Essenes or not, the Dead Sea Scrolls give us a rare glimpse into the vast diversity of Judaism—or Judaisms—in the first century."

Egypt's Lost Queen: First Identification Of A Pharaoh Found In The Valley Of The Kings Since King Tut

ScienceDaily

Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass announced and unveiled June 27, in an international press conference at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, a 3,500-year-old mummy now positively identified as Hatshepsut, one of history’s few female pharaohs. Using computed tomography (CT) scanning and ongoing DNA testing, Dr. Hawass solved the mystery of what happened to one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful and successful rulers.

Dr. Hawass’s odyssey of archeological and scientific adventure has been documented in Discovery Channel’s Secrets Of Egypt’s Lost Queen.

The investigative journey of Dr. Hawass and his team leads them through the massive crypts beneath Egypt and into the depths of the Egyptian Museum. Using knowledge of royal Egyptian mummification and clues from two known tombs linked to Hatshepsut, the team narrows their search for Hatshepsut to just four mummies from thousands of unidentified corpses.

CT scanning allows the scientists to link distinct physical traits of the four mummies to those of Hatshepsut’s known relatives. The search further narrows to two possibilities—both from the tomb of Hatshepsut’s wet nurse—but the final clue lies within a canopic box inscribed with the female pharaoh’s name. A scan of the box finds a tooth that, when measured, perfectly matches a missing upper molar in one of the two mummies.

Applied Biosystems, the leading global provider of DNA analysis technologies, and Discovery Quest, Discovery Channel’s initiative to support the scientific community’s work, enabled the construction of and equipment for the first-ever ancient DNA testing facility located in the Cairo Museum in Egypt. The DNA testing facility will not only be used to extract and compare nuclear and mitochondrial DNA of the Hatshepsut mummy and mummies from her family, but will be used by scientists to examine future finds in Egypt and attempt to clarify familial relationships among the royal families. The Discovery Quest fund reaffirms Discovery Channel’s commitment to support groundbreaking research and inventions that change our world.

Equipment from Siemens Medical Solutions allowed scientists to conduct detailed computed tomography scanning of each of the mummies. Archeologists were able to go beneath the wrappings and fragile bodies of some of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs without damaging them.

More powerful than Cleopatra or Nefertiti, Hatshepsut stole the throne from her young stepson, dressed herself as a man and in an unprecedented move declared herself pharaoh. Though her power stretched across Egypt and her reign was prosperous, Hatshepsut’s legacy was systematically erased from Egyptian history—historical records were destroyed, monuments torn down and her corpse removed from her tomb—and her death is shrouded in mystery.

Secrets Of Egypt’s Lost Queen is produced for Discovery Channel by Brando Quilici Productions. Brando Quilici is the executive producer for Brando Quilici Productions.

Constraining the Reign of Ancient Egypt: Radiocarbon Dating Helps to Nail Down the Chronology of Kings, Researchers Say

ScienceDaily

For several thousands of years, ancient Egypt dominated the Mediterranean world -- and scholars across the globe have spent more than a century trying to document the reigns of the various rulers of Egypt's Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. Now, a detailed radiocarbon analysis of short-lived plant remains from the region is providing scientists with a long and accurate chronology of ancient Egyptian dynasties that agrees with most previous estimates but also imposes some historic revisions.

Illahun Papyrus (Credit: Courtesy of the University of Haifa

Although previous chronologies have been precise in relative ways, assigning absolute dates to specific events in ancient Egyptian history has been an extremely contentious undertaking. This new study tightly constrains those previous predictions, especially for the Old Kingdom, which was determined to be slightly older than some scholars had believed. The study will also allow for more accurate historical comparisons to surrounding areas, like Libya and Sudan, which have been subject to many radiocarbon dating techniques in the past.

Christopher Bronk Ramsey and colleagues from the Universities of Oxford and Cranfield in England, along with a team of researchers from France, Austria and Israel, collected radiocarbon measurements from 211 various plants -- obtained from museum collections in the form of seeds, baskets, textiles, plant stems and fruits -- that were directly associated with particular reigns of ancient Egyptian kings. They then combined their radiocarbon data with historical information about the order and length of each king's reign to make a complete chronology of ancient Egyptian dynasties.

Their research is published in the June 18 issue of Science.

"My colleague, Joanne Rowland, went to a lot of museums, explaining what we were doing and asking for their participation," Bronk Ramsey said. "The museums were all very helpful in providing material we were interested in -- especially important since export of samples from Egypt is currently prohibited. Fortunately, we only needed samples that were about the same size as a grain of wheat."

The researchers' new chronology does indicate that a few events occurred earlier than previously predicted. It suggests, for example, that the reign of Djoser in the Old Kingdom actually started between 2691 and 2625 B.C. and that the New Kingdom began between 1570 and 1544 B.C.

Bronk Ramsey and his colleagues also found some discrepancies in the radiocarbon levels of the Nile Valley, but they suggest that these are due to ancient Egypt's unusual growing season, which is concentrated in the winter months.

For the most part, the new chronology simply narrows down the various historical scenarios that researchers have been considering for ancient Egypt.

"For the first time, radiocarbon dating has become precise enough to constrain the history of ancient Egypt to very specific dates," said Bronk Ramsey. "I think scholars and scientists will be glad to hear that our small team of researchers has independently corroborated a century of scholarship in just three years."

This report by Bronk Ramsey et al. was funded by the Leverhulme Trust with additional financial support from the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, NERC, CNRS, CEA, IRSN, IRD, and Ministère de La Culture.

Giant Stone Head of Ancient Egypt's King Amenhotep III Discovered

ScienceDaily
A colossal red granite head of ancient Egypt's King Amenhotep III (circa 1390-1352 BC) has been discovered in his funerary temple of the Kom El -Hettan area on Luxor's West Bank.

Egypt's Culture Minister, Farouk Hosni, announced the discovery, which was carried out by the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, a multi-national Egyptian-European team.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the newly discovered head is intact and measures 2.50 meters high. It is a masterpiece of highly artistic quality, and shows a portrait of the king with very fine youthful sculptured features.

Hawass added that the head is smoothly polished and perfectly preserved, with some traces of red paint on the head of the ureaus (cobra).

Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, the head of the mission, said that the granite head belongs to a large statue representing the king standing, hands crossed over his chest and holding the royal insignia.

The king wears the Upper Egyptian white crown. The ceremonial beard is broken under the chin but, according to Sourouzian, it may still lie under the rubble below.

She added that: "Over the past years we have gathered a large quantity of red granite statue pieces, which once stood in the southern part of the great court of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III at Kom el Hettan. Parts of the body of the statue are presently in restoration."

This temple is one of the most important temples of Dynasty 18, where 84 colossi statues have been unearthed.

Among them are those of King Amenhotep III and his wife, Queen Tiye, whose mummy was recently identified by Dr. Hawass and a team of scientists.

Archaeologists find new structure at Stonehenge

NewsDaily

LONDON, July 22, 2010 (Reuters) — Archaeologists have discovered a wooden version of British prehistoric monument Stonehenge at the same site, the project's leader told Reuters on Thursday.

People attend the annual summer solstice at the Stonehenge monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, southern England June 21, 2010. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

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Using radar, the archaeologists found a circular ditch less than one kilometer away from the iconic stone circle, which is thought to date back to the Neolithic period 2,000 to 4,000 years ago.

"This finding is remarkable," said project leader Vince Gaffney, professor of archaeology at the University of Birmingham.

"It will completely change the way we think about the landscape around Stonehenge."

The ditch has internal pits about a meter wide which could have held timber posts. It measures 25 meters (82 ft) in diameter, just five meters less than Stonehenge.

"From the general shape, we would guess it dates backs to about the time when Stonehenge was emerging at its most complex," Gaffney said.

"This is probably the first major ceremonial monument that has been found in the past 50 years or so.

It was likely that the two henges were built around the same time, Gaffney added.

Radar images show the wooden henge has two entrances and inside the circle is a burial mound which was probably erected at a later time.

"We will not excavate. This is a virtual dig. We couldn't excavate at this scale anyway," Gaffney said.

He is confident the team will uncover more remains at the site as the project continues.

"I have absolutely no doubt. Stonehenge is not just by itself. We have a massive virtual landscape (to explore)," he added.

There is much speculation about what Stonehenge was used for, ranging from sacrificial rituals to astronomy.

The project is supported by the site's landowner the National Trust and the English Heritage. It involves the University of Birmingham, the University of Bradford and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria.

The find comes after the UK government withdrew 10 million pounds of funding in June for a separate project to improve the landscape at the Stonehenge site.

Oldest Written Document Ever Found in Jerusalem Discovered

SciencyDaily

A tiny clay fragment -- dating from the 14th century B.C.E. -- that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem's Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say.
enlarge

The clay fragment was uncovered recently during sifting of fill excavated from beneath a 10th century B.C.E. tower dating from the period of King Solomon in the Ophel area, located between the southern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David to its south. Details of the discovery appear in the current issue of the Israel Exploration Journal.

Excavations in the Ophel have been conducted by Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Funding for the project has been provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman of New York, who also have provided funds for completion of the excavations and opening of the site to the public by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Company for the Development of East Jerusalem. The sifting work was led by Dr.Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Zweig at the Emek Zurim wet-sieving facility site.

The fragment that has been found is 2x2.8 centimeters in size and one centimeter thick. Dated to the 14th century B.C.E., it appears to have been part of a tablet and contains cuneiform symbols in ancient Akkadian (the lingua franca of that era).

The words the symbols form are not significant in themselves, but what is significant is that the script is of a very high level, testifying to the fact that it was written by a highly skilled scribe that in all likelihood prepared tablets for the royal household of the time, said Prof. Wayne Horowitz , a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Horowitz deciphered the script along with his former graduate student Dr. Takayoshi Oshima, now of the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, Horowitz said, and there is a great likelihood, because of its fine script and the fact it was discovered adjacent to in the acropolis area of the ancient city, that the fragment was part of such a "royal missive." Horowitz has interpreted the symbols on the fragment to include the words "you," "you were," "later," "to do" and "them."

The most ancient known written record previously found in Jerusalem was the tablet found in the Shiloah water tunnel in the City of David area during the 8th century B.C.E. reign of King Hezekiah. That tablet, celebrating the completion of the tunnel, is in a museum in Istanbul. This latest find predates the Hezekiah tablet by about 600 years.

The fragment found at the Ophel is believed to be contemporary with the some 380 tablets discovered in the 19th century at Amarna in Egypt in the archives of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), who lived in the 14th century B.C.E. The archives include tablets sent to Akhenaten by the kings who were subservient to him in Canaan and Syria and include details about the complex relationships between them, covering many facets of governance and society. Among these tablets are six that are addressed from Abdi-Heba, the Canaanite ruler of Jerusalem. The tablet fragment in Jerusalem is most likely part of a message that would have been sent from the king of Jerusalem, possibly Abdi-Heba, back to Egypt, said Mazar.

Examination of the material of the fragment by Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University, shows that it is from the soil of the Jerusalem area and not similar to materials from other areas, further testifying to the likelihood that it was part of a tablet from a royal archive in Jerusalem containing copies of tablets sent by the king of Jerusalem to Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt.

Mazar says this new discovery, providing solid evidence of the importance of Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age (the second half of the second century B.C.E.), acts as a counterpoint to some who have used the lack of substantial archeological findings from that period until now to argue that Jerusalem was not a major center during that period. It also lends weight to the importance that accrued to the city in later times, leading up to its conquest by King David in the 10th century B.C.E., she said.

OLDEST PORTRAITS OF APOSTLES FOUND

DiscoveryNews

The oldest known icons of Jesus Christ’s apostles have been found in a catacomb near St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome, Vatican officials announced at a news conference on Tuesday.

Dating from the end of the 4th century, the full-face paintings depict three of Jesus’ original 12 apostles -- St. Peter, St. Andrew and St. John -- as well as St. Paul, who became an apostle after Christ’s death.

The Vatican already announced the discovery of St.Paul’s icon last June, to mark the end of the Pauline year. But the portrait was part of a larger fresco that also included the full-face depictions of the other three apostles.

Located on the ceiling of a noblewoman’s burial place in the catacombs of St. Tecla, the four circular portraits, about 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) in diameter, were buried in layers of white calcium carbonate caused by the extreme humidity and lack of air circulation.

“Using a new laser technology, we have been able to burn off some rather thick deposits of white calcium without damaging the extraordinary colors of the frescoes,” said Barbara Mazzei, director of the two year restoration project.

With the laser working as an “optical scalpel,” the images of the apostles came to light in full detail, showing that devotion to the apostles began in early Christianity, said Mazzei.

Indeed, St. Peter’s long, white beard, his squared face and the wrinkles on St. Paul’s forehead indicate that these frescoes may have set the standard for future representations of the apostles.

“These are the first images of the apostles," said Fabrizio Bisconti, the superintendent of archaeology for the catacombs, which are maintained by the Vatican's Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology.

“The paintings of Andrew and John are undoubtedly the oldest ever. There are some older representations of St. Peter dating to the middle of the fourth century, but this is the first time that the apostle is not shown in a group but in an full face icon," Bisconti told reporters.

Measuring about 2 meters by 2 meters (6.6 feet by 6.6 feet), the frescoes also depict the bejeweled noblewoman and her daughter.

“She could have been one of those aristocratic Roman women who had converted to Christianity at the end of the fourth century,” Bisconti said.

New Hominid Shares Traits With Homo Species: Fossil Find Sheds Light on the Transition to Homo Genus from Earlier Hominids

Science Daily

Two partial skeletons unearthed from a cave in South Africa belong to a previously unclassified species of hominid that is now shedding new light on the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens, researchers say. The newly documented species, called Australopithecus sediba, was an upright walker that shared many physical traits with the earliest known Homo species -- and its introduction into the fossil record might answer some key questions about what it means to be human.

The fossils are between 1.95 and 1.78 million years old, and in this week's issue of Science, the peer-reviewed journal published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society, two reports describe both the physical characteristics of this new Australopithecus species as well as the ancient environment in which it lived and died. The emerging picture is one of a hominid with a bone structure similar to the earliest Homo species, but who employed it more as an Australopithecus, like the famed "Lucy," would have.

These new fossils, however, represent a hominid that appeared approximately one million years later than Lucy, and their features imply that the transition from earlier hominids to the Homo genus occurred in very slow stages, with various Homo-like species emerging first.

"It is not possible to establish the precise phylogenetic position of Australopithecus sediba in relation to various species assigned to early Homo," wrote Lee Berger, a lead author of one of the Science reports. "We can conclude that… this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other known australopith species, and thus represents a candidate ancestor for the genus, or a sister group to a close ancestor that persisted for some time after the first appearance of Homo."

Many scientists believe that the human genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus a little more than two million years ago -- but the origin has been widely debated, with other experts proposing an evolution from the Kenyanthropus genus. This new Australopithecus sediba species might eventually clear up that debate, and help to reveal our direct human ancestors.

"Before this discovery, you could pretty much fit the entire record of fossils that are candidates for the origin of the genus Homo from this time period onto a small table. But, with the discovery of Australopithecus sediba and the wealth of fossils we've recovered -- and are recovering -- that has changed dramatically," Berger said.

The name itself, "sediba," means "fountain" or "wellspring" in the seSotho language, spoken in South Africa, and indeed, researchers do believe that the new fossils will provide a wealth of information about our human origins.

For now, these new hominid fossils make it clear that the evolutionary transition from small-bodied, and perhaps more tree-dwelling, ancestors to larger-bodied, full-striding bipeds occurred in gradual steps.

Berger, from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, along with Paul Dirks from James Cook University in Australia began a study on the distribution of cave deposits in the Cradle of Humankind -- a World Heritage Site, set aside for its physical and cultural significance -- in January 2008. Months later, Berger discovered the two partial skeletons in cave deposits at Malapa, South Africa, and analyzed the remains, including most of a skull, pelvis, and ankle of the new species with colleagues from the U.S., Switzerland, and Australia.

The two Australopithecus sediba -- an adult female and a juvenile male -- were found close together in a portion of the cave system that had been protected from scavengers, so the fossils are very well-preserved. The researchers describe the hominid's physical traits, highlighting the unique pelvic features and small teeth that it shared with early Homo species. Based on its physique, they suggest that the new species descended from Australopithecus africanus, and that the hominid's appearance signified the dawn of more energy-efficient walking and running.

"These fossils give us an extraordinarily detailed look into a new chapter of human evolution, and provide a window into a critical period when hominids made the committed change from dependency on life in the trees to life on the ground," said Berger. "Australopithecus sediba appears to present a mosaic of features demonstrating an animal comfortable in both worlds."

In a separate report published in Science, Paul Dirks and colleagues from around the world analyze the Malapa cave system, date the fossil deposits, and describe the geological and ecological environment that Australopithecus sediba would have dwelled in long ago.

"We think the environment sediba lived in was, in many ways, similar to the environment today," Dirks said. "For example, one with predominantly grassy plains, transected by more vegetated, wooded valleys. However, the rivers flowed in different directions and the landscape was not static, but changed all the time."

The caves at Malapa are not randomly distributed, but occur along fracture zones that criss-cross the landscape. They consist of mostly quartz, chert, dolomite, and peloids -- though there are also iron-oxide coated grains, ooids, shale, and feldspar in the rocks.

"The fossils occur together in a near-articulated state in the sedimentary remains of a deeply eroded cave system," Dirks continued. "They were laid down by a single debris flow, indicating the timing of their deaths were closely related and occurred shortly before the debris flow carried them to their place of burial."

The researchers identified the fossils of at least 25 other species of animals, including saber-toothed cats, a wildcat, a brown hyena, a wild dog, antelopes, and a horse in the cave as well. They suggest that the Malapa caves were tens of meters deep when the Australopithecus sediba fossils were deposited -- and also propose that the cave dwelling could have acted as a death trap for animals seeking water.

"One possible explanation for their entry into the cave could have been that they needed water," said Dirks. "To explain the fossil assemblage and their well-preserved state, we would speculate that perhaps at the time of their death, the area in which sediba lived experienced a severe drought… Animals may have smelled the water, ventured in too deep, fallen down hidden shafts in the pitch dark, or got lost and died."

Neandertals 'Hardly Differed at All' from Modern Humans

Science Daily

How much do we, who are alive today, differ from our most recent evolutionary ancestors, the cave-dwelling Neandertals, hominids who lived in Europe and parts of Asia and went extinct about 30,000 years ago? And how much do Neandertals, in turn, have in common with the ape-ancestors from which we are both descended, the chimpanzees?

Although we are both hominids, the fossil record told us long ago that we differ physically from Neandertals, in various ways. But at the level of genes and the proteins that they encode, new research published online May 6 in the journal Science reveals that we differ hardly at all. It also indicates that we both -- Neandertals and modern humans -- differ from the chimps in virtually identical ways.

"The astonishing implication of the work we've just published," says Prof. Gregory Hannon, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), "is that we are incredibly similar to Neandertals at the level of the proteome, which is the full set of proteins that our genes encode."

Collaboration with a paleogenetics pioneer

Hannon, who is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is well known for his work on small RNAs and RNA interference, was invited this past year to help examine Neandertal DNA by Dr. Svante Pääbo, a pioneer in paleogenetics, a field that employs genome science to study early humans and other Paleolithic-era creatures. In a separate paper, Pääbo's team today publishes in the same issue of Science the first complete genome sequence for Neandertal, an achievement that builds on work he has led since 2006 at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Genomics in Leipzig.

"Dr. Pääbo's publication of the full Neandertal genome is a watershed event, a major historical achievement," Hannon says. "The work we conducted in collaboration with his team is only a small part of the larger effort, but it helps us put the Neandertal genome into better perspective, relative to the modern human genome and those of our nearest common ancestor among the apes, the chimpanzees, from whom we diverged about 6.5 million years ago."

The CSHL team contributed a technology developed by Hannon, postdoc Emily Hodges, Ph.D., and others at CSHL in 2007. "We call it "Array capture re-sequencing," says Hannon, "and it enables us to extract from genomes important information, on a very selective basis, rapidly, very accurately, and at low cost. We always anticipated that it might help in the analysis of evolutionary relationships, so when Svante offered us the opportunity to apply it to a Neandertal sample, we were very excited and grateful for the opportunity."

The technique enabled Hannon's CSHL team, working with Pääbo's team in Leipzig, to greatly amplify intact bits of DNA from a Neandertal sample that was 99.8% contaminated -- mainly by bacterial DNA-- and regarded by Pääbo as not likely to yield useful data. The sample studied was considerably more impure than that used as the basis for Pääbo's full Neandertal genome sequence. "Our technology is particularly useful in enabling us to work with the most contaminated samples," says Hannon. "We identify and then greatly amplify just those portions of the target DNA called exons. Exons are stretches of DNA that encode proteins. They comprise only a small fraction of the total genome of modern humans, about 1%."

The Neandertal genome, like that of modern humans, contains about 3 billion base-pairs of nucleotides -- often referred to metaphorically as "letters" in the genome's "book of life." The Hannon-Pääbo collaboration focused on obtaining the most accurate possible sequence of only 14,000 protein-coding segments within the full genome. "These," Hannon explains, "are exons that give rise to the 14,000 proteins that we know are different in modern humans and chimpanzees." The question was what those 14,000 proteins would look like in our Neandertal relatives.

"The overwhelming majority of chimp proteins -- about 75% -- are different from ours in at least one amino-acid 'letter," according to Hannon. These amino-acid changes are in most instances slight, but the resulting functional differences -- the way they affect what proteins do in cells -- can be great, and presumably help to explain many of our differences from chimpanzees.

Eighty-eight amino-acid differences -- and what they might signify

Hannon's team applied its focused sequencing method on those areas in the Neandertal sample obtained from Dr. Pääbo, and, after several rounds of refinement, they arrived at the number 88: they found only 88 changes in Neandertal protein sequences compared with the modern human. Hannon calls this number "astonishing."

At an early stage of the study, the team identified many more protein differences -- about 1000 -- between modern man and the specific Neandertal individual sampled, a male who died about 49,000 years ago in a cave called El Sidrón, in Spain. But that initial figure was based on comparing the Neandertal sequence to that of the modern human reference genome. When the teams incorporated into their calculations variations in the modern human code that they catalogued in 50 individuals from a range of modern ethnic groups, the number of human-Neandertal protein differences dropped from over 1000 to only 88.

Although Hannon says it will be important to study the functional role of the 88 proteins, he expects that many may prove "neutral," functionally. These would be changes in the genetic code that do not issue in any difference in the function of the associated proteins. If even more human genome samples -- say, from 500 contemporary individuals rather than 50 -- were included in the comparison, the number of differences might drop again, Hannon believes. And if additional Neandertal samples were factored into the comparison, he says, "it's possible that the number of differences could approach zero."

In short, Hannon says, "the news, so far, is not about how we differ from Neandertals, but how we are so nearly identical, in terms of proteins." In addition to following up on the functional associations of the 88 proteins identified in the current study, Hannon says new research is likely to address other portions of the genome -- particularly those segments responsible for regulating what genes do. In effect, the search for what distinguishes us from our nearest hominid ancestors will shift to from differences in sequence to differences in function.

3.6 Million-Year-Old Relative of 'Lucy' Discovered: Early Hominid Skeleton Confirms Human-Like Walking Is Ancient

ScienceDaily

Meet "Lucy's" Great-Grandfather. Cleveland Museum of Natural History Curator and Head of Physical Anthropology Dr. Yohnannes Haile-Selassie led an international team that discovered and analyzed a 3.6 million-year-old partial skeleton found in Ethiopia. The early hominid is 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton and is significantly larger in size. Research on the new specimen reveals that advanced human-like, upright walking occurred much earlier in the evolutionary timeline than previously thought.

Haile-Selassie is the first author of the initial analysis of the specimen, which will be published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of June 21, 2010.

Anatomically arranged elements of partial skeleton KSD-VP-1/1. The male Australopithecus afarensis specimen found in Ethiopia was nicknamed "Kadanuumuu." (Credit: Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Liz Russell, Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Used with permission from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)

The specimen was nicknamed "Kadanuumuu" (kah-dah-nuu-muu) by the authors. This means "big man" in the Afar language and reflects its large size. The male hominid stood between 5 to 5 ½ feet tall, while "Lucy" stood only 3 ½ feet tall.

"This individual was fully bipedal and had the ability to walk almost like modern humans," said Haile-Selassie. "As a result of this discovery, we can now confidently say that 'Lucy' and her relatives were almost as proficient walking on two legs as we are, and that the elongation of our legs came earlier in our evolution that previously thought."

He explained, "All of our understanding of Australopithecus afarenis' locomotion was dependent on 'Lucy.' Because she was an exceptionally small female with absolutely short legs, this gave some researchers the impression that she was not fully adapted to upright walking. This new skeleton falsifies that impression because if 'Lucy's' frame had been as large as this specimen, her legs would also have been proportionally longer."

Kent State University Professor Dr. C. Owen Lovejoy was a co-author of the research and helped analyze the skeleton. When comparing it to "Lucy," Lovejoy said, "They both have pelves, a complete lower limb bone and elements of the forelimb, vertebral column and thorax. However, the new specimen has more complete ribs and a nearly complete scapula, which tells us much more about body form in Australopithecus afarensis than 'Lucy' was able to alone."

Authors of the research include Cleveland scientists Dr. Bruce Latimer, interim director of the Center for Human Origins of the Institute for the Science of Origins at Case Western Reserve University, and Dr. Beverly Saylor, associate professor of geological sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Other co-authors are from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, Berkeley Geochronology Center and Stanford University.

Australopithecus afarenis is the best-known direct early human ancestor. Until now, the only partial skeleton assigned to this species was "Lucy," a 3.2 million-year-old female individual, which was discovered in 1974 by a team led by then Museum curator Dr. Donald Johanson.

The analysis of "Kadanuumuu" indicates that the shoulder and rib cage of this species were different from those of chimpanzees. "These findings further confirm what we concluded from the 'Ardi' specimen -- that chimpanzees have undergone a great deal of specialized evolution since we shared a last common ancestor with them," said Lovejoy.

"Ardi," or Ardipithecus ramidus is a 4.4 milion-year-old hominid species that was unveiled in October 2009 by a team that included Haile-Selassie, Lovejoy, and Museum scientists and associate researchers Dr. Linda Spurlock, Dr. Bruce Latimer and Dr. Scott Simpson. "Ardi" was named by the journal Science as breakthrough discovery of the year. Click here to find out more about "Ardi."

Remains of world’s oldest human brain found in Armenia

Thaindian News

Washington, October 1 (ANI): An Armenian-American-Irish archeological expedition claims to have found the remains of the world’s oldest human brain, estimated to be over 5,000 years old.

The discovery was made recently in a cave in southeastern Armenia.

An analysis performed by the Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine confirmed that one of three human skulls found at the site contains particles of a human brain dating to around the first quarter of the 4th millennium BC.

“The preliminary results of the laboratory analysis prove this is the oldest of the human brains so far discovered in the world,” said Dr. Boris Gasparian, one of the excavation’s leaders and an archeologist from the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology in Yerevan.

“Of course, the mummies of Pharaonic Egypt did contain brains, but this one is older than the Egyptian ones by about 1,000 to 1,200 years,” he added.

The team in Armenia, comprised of 26 specialists from Ireland, the United States and Armenia, had been excavating the three-chamber cave where the brain was found since 2007.

The site, overlooking the Arpa River near the town of Areni, is believed to date mostly to the Late Chalcolithic Period or the Early Bronze Age (around 6,000 to 5,000 years ago).

It also contains evidence of elaborate burial rituals and agricultural practices.

The skull with the brain was found in a chamber that contained three buried ceramic vessels containing the skulls of three women, about 11 to 16 years old.

The cave’s damp climate helped preserve red and white blood cells in the brain remains.

“It is a unique first-hand source of information about the genetic code of the people who inhabited this place, and we’re now studying it,” Gasparian said in reference to the nine-centimeter-long, seven-centimeter-high brain fragment.

It is still being determined from what part of the brain the fragment comes.

“Microscopic analysis revealed blood vessels and traces of a brain hemorrhage, perhaps caused by a blow to the head,” Gasparian said.

Next to one of the three skulls, the team also found four adult femoral shafts - midsections of a thigh bone - that may have also played a role in the ritual.

“Interestingly, some of them were not just burnt, but rather evenly roasted from all sides, which directly points to a ceremonial practice. This may have been a case of ceremonial cannibalism, but it still needs to be proved,” said Gasparian. (ANI)