Ancient Origins Unleashed Debrief: Midsummer Madness includes Mound Treasures, Spartacus Walls and Stonehenge Misadventures
With the USA celebrating their independence from the UK today (have a great day guys) and the UK trying to work out who are the best politicians to lead the country forward in the next political term, I’m pretty sure there is not too much time for folk to spend on my musings, so I’ll get straight to the crux of things.
I’d just like to say how pleased I am Digging Up The Past has joined forces with Ancient Origins…great things are on the horizon!
Here are the most impactful stories from the last few weeks…
Antikythea scanned…
Gravitational Wave Researchers Cast New Light on Antikythera Mechanism
Techniques developed to analyze the ripples in spacetime detected by one of the 21st century’s most sensitive pieces of scientific equipment have helped cast new light on the function of the oldest known analogue computer.
Astronomers from the University of Glasgow have used statistical modelling techniques developed to analyze gravitational waves to establish the likely number of holes in one of the broken rings of the Antikythera mechanism – an ancient artifact which was showcased in the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
While the movie version enabled the intrepid archaeologist to travel through time, the Glasgow team’s results provide fresh evidence that one of the components of the Antikythera mechanism was most likely used to track the Greek lunar year. They also offer new insight into the remarkable craftsmanship of the ancient Greeks.
Spartacus Trap…
Archaeologists Find Roman Wall Built to Trap the Legendary Spartacus
In a discovery sure to capture a good deal of public attention, a team of archaeologists have found the remains of a Roman wall built to trap the forces of Spartacus, the escaped former Roman gladiator who led the most celebrated and famous slave revolt in world history.
The discoverers of this fascinating and historically significant find were led by Dr. Paolo Visona, a classical archaeologist from the University of Kentucky in the United States.
The Roman wall was found in a mountainous area in south-central Calabria in southern Italy, where Spartacus and his rebellious forces fled in 71 BC in their efforts to escape to Sicily. Walls like this one were built on the orders of the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had been dispatched to lead the Roman legions assigned to capture or kill Spartacus and his army of freed slaves and former gladiators.
Powder power…
Two People Arrested for Vandalizing Stonehenge with Orange Paint
In the middle of the day of Wednesday, June 19, a group of Just Stop Oil protestors sprayed several stones of the ancient Stonehenge monument with orange paint. Video footage has been captured showing the two individuals in question wearing Just Stop Oil shirts while running up to the monoliths with the canisters of paint, spraying the stone. To stop the two vandals from defacing the stones, members of the public were seen intervening. These videos can be found on social media.
The Just Stop protestors have been identified as Niamh Lynch, a 21-year-old Oxford student and Rajan Naidu, a 73-year-old from Birmingham; both of which have been arrested by police for damaging the protected ancient monument.
Sharing the video, the Just Stop Oil group posted on X demanding:
“…the incoming government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”
This same group has stirred up headlines last month when protestors smashed the glass protecting the 13th century manuscript, the Magna Carta, in the British Museum in London.
Powder puff protest in action…
This story exploded…
Researchers of Largest Volcanic Eruption in History Honored by Antiquity
The prestigious Antiquity Trust has just announced its decision to award its Ben Cullen Prize for innovative archaeological research to a team of experts who studied the impact of a massive volcanic eruption that took place 7,300 years ago on Japan’s Tanegashima Island. The winners included eight archaeologists from universities in Japan and Sweden, who collaborated to perform an in-depth study of societal collapse and human resiliency in response to a world-altering natural disaster in prehistoric times.
Prize Winning Research on Catastrophic Eruption
The catastrophic eruption devastated the Jōmon communities who lived on Tanegashima island in 5,300 BC, leaving the survivors no choice but to abandon their traditional homeland for quite some time before finally returning. In an article published by Antiquity (the sponsors of the Ben Cullen prize) in April 2023, the award-winning researchers revealed how the Jōmon people responded to the destruction of their homeland, both in the immediate aftermath and in the future.
What they uncovered defied previous stereotypes, showing that the people’s patterns of adaptation were complex and demonstrated an ability to adjust to dramatic changes in living circumstances.
Because of the originality and paradigm-challenging nature of their work, the Antiquity Trust selected the study authors to receive one of its most illustrious prizes, which is one of two they award to deserving archaeological researchers each year.
As the scientists involved in this groundbreaking study explained, they wanted to add new layers of analytical complexity to the study of how ancient cultures reacted to natural disasters that caused a high loss of life and severe ecosystem damage.
“Our article seeks to move away from the lingering assumption that natural disasters inevitably trigger ‘collapse’ and the disappearance of entire cultures,” they wrote in their 2023 Antiquity article. “Instead, we contend that further empirical work is required to examine a more complex cycle of catastrophic impact, initial recovery and the deeper transformation of particular cultural trajectories.”
Mound treasures…
Ancient Cahokia of North America Reveals 900-Year-Old Treasures
While carrying out excavations at the site of North America’s first great city, which is called Cahokia by historians, a team of archaeologists and students from Saint Louis University unearthed a virtual treasure trove of Native American artifacts and ruins dating back to approximately 1100 to 1200 AD.
Located near the site of modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, Cahokia was constructed by the mound-building Mississippian culture, which gave the nearby river its name.
‘The excavation team was digging just to the west of the Cahokia Mounds when they made their discoveries, which surpassed the modest expectations they had when they launched their explorations.’
In an excavation layer associated with the Sterling Phase of the Mississippian Period, the team members unearthed wall trenches and assorted structures that they quickly established were between 800 and 900 years old. They also recovered many pieces of ceramic pottery and tools known as microdrills that were mixed in with the rubble of the buried buildings. The archaeologists who organized the excavations were delighted to find so many significant artifacts from this particular time period.
Labyrinthine mound?
Circular Labyrinthine Structure from the Minoan Era Discovered on Crete
The latest excavation at Papoura Hill, near the town of Kastelli in Crete, has revealed an extraordinary find that is reshaping our understanding of Minoan architecture. Situated 494 meters (1,621 feet) above sea level, this monumental architectural ensemble is unique in Minoan archaeology, with its circular structure spanning approximately 48 meters (157 feet) in diameter and covering an area of around 1800 square meters (19,375 square feet).
This significant discovery, located at the highest point of Papoura Hill, is part of the ongoing excavations necessitated by the construction of a new airport. The find includes a complex of eight superimposed stone rings with an average thickness of 1.40 meters (4.6 feet) and a maximum surviving height of 1.7 meters (5.6 feet). These rings form a central circular building, referred to as Zone A, with a diameter of 15 meters (49 feet), subdivided into four quadrants, reports a Greek Ministry of Culture press release.
‘The monumental structure comprises two main zones. Zone A is encircled by Zone B, which has a maximum width of 6.9 meters (22.6 feet) and contains radial walls intersecting the rings to create smaller spaces. This layout gives the structure a labyrinthine appearance, with rooms connected by narrow openings. The site has two possible main entrances located on the southwest and northwest sides.’
The primary period of use for this monument appears to have been between 2000 and 1700 BC, suggesting its establishment around the beginning of the Palaeopalatial period (Middle Minoan I-II). The presence of Neopalatial pottery in the destruction layer indicates that the site continued to be used into the Neopalatial period, around 1700 to 1450 BC.
Til next time… dust yourself down, and move on…
Gary Manners - Senior Editor, Ancient Origins
Thanks for your work.