Ancient Origins Unleashed Debrief: Controversy, Controversy and, oh, a woolly rhino….what a fortnight!
Greetings the Unleashed!
This fortnight seems to have been one of blockbuster stories that have really got people excited.
In this issue of Ancient Origins Unleashed newsletter…
Tomb Discovered Beneath Petra Holds Human Remains and ‘Holy Grail’ Cup
A hidden tomb beneath Petra’s Al Khazneh has revealed 12 skeletons and a cup resembling the ‘Holy Grail.’ This remarkable find, led by Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman, uncovers new details about the ancient Nabataeans.Ancient Apocalypse Season 2: Ice Age Civilization Theories Resurface
Graham Hancock returns with new claims about an advanced Ice-Age civilization destroyed by comet-induced floods 12,000 years ago. Keanu Reeves joins Hancock in this controversial exploration aired on Netflix.Neanderthals Never Really Went Extinct: Geneticists Prove Ongoing Interbreeding
New genetic research led by Joshua Akey shows modern humans and Neanderthals interbred for over 200,000 years, revealing deep connections between ancient hominin groups.Ragnarök Myth Linked to Real Climate Catastrophe
Archaeologists in Denmark discover evidence of a climate disaster 1,500 years ago that may have inspired the Norse myth of Ragnarök, with findings supported by tree-ring and ice-core data.New Clues May Solve Columbus Mysteries
DNA testing confirms that remains in Seville’s Cathedral belong to Christopher Columbus, but the question of his true origins may finally be answered in an upcoming TV special.And…the woolly rhino
So here we go…
Holy grail of finds…well, a grail at least….
Tomb Discovered Beneath Petra Holds Human Remains and ‘Holy Grail’ Cup
A hidden tomb containing the remains of at least 12 individuals and an artifact resembling the 'Holy Grail' has been discovered under Petra’s famous Al Khazneh, one of the Middle East's greatest monuments and an iconic filming location for the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Unlike other tombs previously unearthed in Petra, which were largely empty, this tomb contained well-preserved skeletal remains and artifacts that are believed to be over 2,000 years old, reports The Times of Israel. The discovery sheds new light on the lives of the Nabataeans, a sophisticated civilization that once flourished in this region of southern Jordan.
The recent excavation, led by Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman, executive director of the American Center of Research (ACOR), in collaboration with Josh Gates from the Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown, marks a rare archaeological discovery beneath the famed ‘Treasury’ of Petra. Although Petra has been explored for over two centuries, this new tomb, containing 12 well-preserved skeletons and a grail-shaped ceramic chalice, proves there are still unknown treasures at the site.
Petra’s Hidden History: The Search for Underground Tombs
Al Khazneh, or “The Treasury,” is one of Petra’s most famous and enigmatic structures. Carved into the sandstone cliffs of southern Jordan around the 1st century AD, it served as a mausoleum and crypt, likely for King Aretas IV of the Nabataean Empire. While its magnificent exterior has been studied extensively, the interior and subterranean chambers have long intrigued archaeologists.
Back in 2003, explorers found two tombs containing partial skeletal remains below the left side of Al Khazneh, the Daily Mail explains. However, ground-penetrating radar suggested the presence of additional chambers on the right side of the structure. Armed with this knowledge, Dr. Creasman’s team sought permission from the Jordanian government to explore further, eventually leading to the remarkable August 2024 excavation.
Controversy 2…
Can Ancient Apocalypse Series 2 Convince Us of a Lost Ice Age Civilization?
Controversial Scottish journalist Graham Hancock’s hit TV show, Ancient Apocalypse, has just released its second season on Netflix, with a focus on the Americas. With Keanu Reeves signed onboard, the long and short of this season is to present Hancock’s most prevailing theories: an advanced Ice-Age civilization, responsible for shaping modern concepts of mathematics, architecture, and agriculture, was destroyed by catastrophic floods caused by comet strikes around 12,000 years ago.
“What if Everything We Know About Prehistoric Humans is Wrong?”
Hancock claims evidence for this theory can be found at ancient sites across the globe, reports The Guardian. He’d visited locations in countries like Turkey, Mexico, and Indonesia during the first season of his Netflix series, which aired in 2022. Netflix promoted the show with the tagline, “What if everything we know about prehistoric humans is wrong?” In the series, Hancock criticizes mainstream archaeology for rejecting his ideas.
30 Years of Searching for an Advanced Ancient Civilization Unfolds
Since the release of his 1995 book Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock has been one of the most vocal proponents of the ancient apocalypse theory. According to conventional archaeological understanding, humans transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled farmers between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, which paved the way for the rise of the first urban civilizations in Mesopotamia around 6,000 years ago.
Hancock argues that an advanced civilization existed in what is now Antarctica long before this period: between 11,600 and 12,800 years ago, a series of cataclysmic events brought about the end of this Ice Age society. Hancock refers to this time as “an abrupt episode of cataclysmic climate change,” known in scientific circles as the Younger Dryas period. He controversially suggests that a comet impact, part of what proponents call the "Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis," triggered the rapid climate shifts.
“12,800 years ago, the Earth crossed the debris stream of a very large, disintegrating comet and was bombarded by hundreds of fragments, some large, some small. It was the resulting shock of these impacts and airbursts that triggered the Younger Dryas”, posited Hancock.
Before their destruction, Hancock claims, this ancient civilization traveled the globe, constructing monuments and passing on the knowledge of civilization to other peoples.
In the second season of his series, Hancock continues his search for evidence to support his theory, this time focusing on the Americas. He interviews several archaeologists and, curiously, actor Keanu Reeves, as he explores structures across the continent that he believes hint at the existence of this ancient, lost society, reports the Daily Mail.
Just look around the mall…
Geneticists Show How Neanderthals Never Really Went Extinct
Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were discovered, people have wondered about these ancient hominins. How are they different from us? How much are they like us? Did our ancestors get along with them? Fight them? Love them? The recent discovery of a group called Denisovans, a Neanderthal-like group who populated Asia and Oceania, added its own set of questions.
Now, an international team of geneticists and AI experts are adding whole new chapters to our shared hominin history. Under the leadership of Joshua Akey, a professor in Princeton’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the researchers have found a history of genetic intermingling and exchange that suggests a much more intimate connection between these early human groups than previously believed.
Genetic Exchange Between Neanderthals and Modern Humans
“This is the first time that geneticists have identified multiple waves of modern human-Neanderthal admixture,” said Liming Li, a professor in the Department of Medical Genetics and Developmental Biology at Southeast University in Nanjing, China, who performed this work as an associate research scholar in Akey’s lab.
“We now know that for the vast majority of human history, we’ve had a history of contact between modern humans and Neanderthals,” said Akey. The hominins who are our most direct ancestors split from the Neanderthal family tree about 600,000 years ago, then evolved our modern physical characteristics about 250,000 years ago.
“From then until the Neanderthals disappeared — that is, for about 200,000 years — modern humans have been interacting with Neanderthal populations,” he said.
The results of their work appear in the current issue of the journal Science.
Neanderthals, once stereotyped as slow-moving and dim-witted, are now seen as skilled hunters and tool makers who treated each other’s injuries with sophisticated techniques and were well adapted to thrive in the cold European weather.
(Note: All of these hominin groups are humans, but to avoid saying “Neanderthal humans,” “Denisovan humans,” and “ancient-versions-of-our-own-kind-of-humans,” most archaeologists and anthropologists use the shorthand Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans.)
Myth? Huh?
Evidence of Climate Disaster That Could Have Spawned the Ragnarök Myth
No, this is not out of the Marvel Cinematic or comic universe, but it does have fantastical qualities: archaeologists in Denmark have unearthed actual evidence of a climate disaster 1,500 years ago, that may have influenced the Norse myth of Ragnarök! The legend, first appearing in the Poetic Edda from the Icelandic Codex Regius, describes a series of events detailing catastrophic natural disasters, culminating in the submersion of Midgard and the deaths of gods such as Odin, Thor, and Loki.
Myth of Ragnarok: A Real Climate Catastrophe?
The Völuspá, one of the most primary sources for the study of Norse mythology, with Biblical level disaster-imagining, recounts the world’s creation, its end, and eventual rebirth. The research, published in the latest edition of Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, claims that the myth of Ragnarök may have been inspired by a real climate catastrophe that led to a population decline in Denmark around 1,500 years ago.
“Archaeobotanical and stable isotope analysis on plant remains from 39 sites spanning the Bronze, Iron, and Viking Ages in Denmark has been undertaken in order to investigate the development and resilience of agricultural practices, particularly through the 1250-year-long Iron Age (500 BC – AD 750),” write the authors of the study.
During the mid-6th century AD, two massive volcanic eruptions occurred on the American continent, releasing vast amounts of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. This triggered a significant cooling of the Northern Hemisphere's climate. Historical records from China describe this period as one where the sun appeared pale and cold, crops failed to ripen, and the stars were obscured for over a year due to volcanic particles lingering in the atmosphere.
Dendrochronology: What do the Trees Tell Us?
Researchers from the National Museum conducted a dendrochronological study (dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed in a tree) of Danish oak samples to analyze the impact of climate change on tree growth between 300 and 800 AD. These findings were cross-referenced with ice core data from Greenland, which track historical volcanic eruptions by measuring sulfuric acid deposits in precipitation.
New Clues Finally Unravel Mysteries Surrounding Christopher Columbus’ Origins and Remains
One of history’s most controversial, reviled, and yet important figures, the first conquistador, Christopher Columbus, is the subject of a new scientific breakthrough, that could finally resolve two long-standing mysteries surrounding him. More than five centuries after his death, new technology could tell us whether the remains interred in Seville Cathedral are truly his, and where Columbus, believed to have been Genoese, is really from.
Arriving at the Truth: Controversial Origins
The answer to the first mystery seems clear: after two decades of rigorous DNA testing, forensic expert José Antonio Lorente has confirmed that the remains in Seville’s grand tomb do indeed belong to Columbus, reports El Pais. Comparisons were made between the DNA of the bones in Seville and samples taken from Columbus's brother, Diego, and his son, Fernando.
“Today, thanks to new technology, the previous partial theory that the remains in Seville are those of Christopher Columbus has been definitively confirmed,” said the expert, who led the study at the University of Granada.
Despite the explorer’s remains having been moved multiple times—first to Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), then to Cuba, and finally to Seville in 1898, the latest evidence seemingly puts an end to the uncertainty about his final resting place.
The more controversial question about his true origins remains still fully contested, though a TV program airing on October 12, Spain’s national day, promises to reveal the truth. Historically, Columbus has been widely believed to be from Genoa, Italy, but theories suggesting he may have been Basque, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek, or Jewish have persisted for years.
The forthcoming program, titled Columbus DNA: His True Origin, aims to finally settle the debate after extensive genetic research. Till the airing of the program, Lorente refuses to reveal more, and remains tight lipped.
And the one you’re here for…
Frozen Mummified Remains of Woolly Rhino from 32,000-Years-Ago!
Scientists in Siberia unearthed the deep-frozen, mummified remains of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros from the permafrost, dated to over 32,000 years ago! The carcass of this pre-historic creature, found in the ice-covered banks of the Tirekhtyakh River in Russia's Sakha Republic, provides crucial insights into the species that once roamed the Arctic tundra during the last Ice Age. The well-preserved right side of the young woolly rhino, who died at the age of 4, still bears patches of skin and fur in amazing condition.
32,000-year-old well preserved woolly rhinoceros found in Tirekhtyakh River in Russia's Sakha Republic. (Boeskorov, G.G. et al./Doklady Earth Sciences)
Much Predated Upon: Woolly Rhinos
The left side of the carcass, on the other hand, reveals significant damage, with clear signs that predators had fed on it, either shortly before or after its death. Further analysis of the remains uncovered traces of tiny crustaceans embedded in the rhino's fur, suggesting that the animal perished in a shallow pool of water.
"From the upper part of the thigh to the level of the shoulder blade, [the carcass] is severely destroyed. The internal cavity of the body is exposed, and most of the intestines are missing… from the mangled carcass, it is obvious that the left side of the mummy was eaten by predators,” researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha wrote in a study documenting the carcass, published in the journal Doklady Earth Sciences.
Til next time… In a controversy, the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. (Buddha)
Gary Manners - Senior Editor, Ancient Origins
Great findings 👍