Ancient Origins Unleashed Debrief: King Charles III’s Ancestral Secrets, an Ax Wounded Pharaoh, and Dragons, lots of Dragons
Ancient Origins Unleashed Debrief: King Charles III’s Ancestral Secrets, an Ax Wounded Pharaoh, and Dragons, lots of Dragons
Greetings the Unleashed!
What with it being King Charles III official birthday in a few days (the third Saturday in June) I’m heading back to the UK for a visit. I haven’t told him I’m coming yet, but I’m sure he’ll spot me in the crowd. It’ll be His Royal Highness’ second birthday as king of the UK, a position he inherited after a long and winding line of succession from William I, the Norman Conqueror.
Apparently, he also has ancestral ties to Vlad the Impaler, as the lineage involves many generations of intermarriage among European royalty.
You can see a full explanation of this connection in an article hot off the press on the Ancient Origins website - From Vlad the Impaler to the British Crown: King Charles III's Ancestral Ties.
Britain became ‘Great’ in 1707 when the Treaty of Union was signed between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, leading to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. And like its monarchs, it too had a long and winding path to becoming a united kingdom.
The fragmented natives of the island were often on the receiving end of power incursions. Romans, Saxons, Angles, Vikings, and the Normans mentioned above were all invaders making a grab for the wealth of the land and, indeed, the land itself. And to this day, the ones ‘born to reign over us’ are somehow related to the Norman invader.
It is this tumultuous past that makes me so interested in just which of those influences has filtered into my own DNA (plus the added bonus of having a North American grandfather, could add a little more genetic spice into the mix).
So the souvenir am actually most excited about bringing back with me after my trip to Blighty is my DNA test file. (I’ve mentioned this before). I can’t wait to get my hands on that, and then I can crack on with exploring what could be a thrilling (to me at least) ancestry through Ancient Origins DNA testing service.
Am I Norman? Saxon? Viking? Jute? Roman? Or something else altogether? I’ll let you know (if you’re interested or not 😉)
Anyway, plenty to do before the off, so enough blathering, and I’ll get on with the editor’s picks….
Same old lack of time…
How Did Busy Ancient Greeks and Romans Keep Fit and Healthy?
Many people today worry about how to find time to keep fit and healthy in the midst of their busy lives. Believe it or not, but this was also a problem in ancient times.
So, how did ancient people deal with it?
A Universal Problem
The physician Galen, who lived from around 129 to 216 AD, dealt with thousands of patients in the city of Rome.
He used to complain some people didn’t devote enough time to keeping fit. In his treatise, Hygiene, Galen wrote one of his patients, a philosopher called Premigenes, was such a workaholic he stayed inside all the time writing books. Because of this bad lifestyle, Premigenes got sick.
Galen said Premigenes needed to work less, and devote more time to getting exercise and some sun.
Some 2,000 years later, most of us will be able to relate to this. The World Health Organization has a number of recommendations for the amount of exercise one should do each week. But it can be difficult to balance work and other commitments with our health and fitness.
The Trade-offs of a Busy Life
People in the Greco-Roman period recognized that being busy has an effect on health.
The writer Lucian of Samosata, from the 2nd century AD, talks in his essay On Salaried Posts in Great Houses about how certain jobs offered workers no time to maintain their health. A bad diet, endless labor and a lack of sleep all contributed to making them unhealthy:
…the sleeplessness, the sweating, and the weariness gradually undermine you, giving rise to consumption, pneumonia, indigestion, or that noble complaint, the gout. You stick it out, however, and often you ought to be in bed, but this is not permitted. They think illness a pretext, and a way of shirking your duties. The general consequences are that you are always pale and look as if you were going to die any minute.
The doctors of the time also noticed this problem. Galen said, in his opinion, one of the determinants of whether we are able to be healthy or not is the amount of free time we have.
He recognized some people had no choice but to be “bound up with the circumstances of their activities” – such as those taken into slavery – but noted others seemed to have:
“chosen a life caught up in the circumstances of their activities, either through ambition or whatever kind of desire, so they are least able to spend time on the care of their bodies.”
Galen was also affected by this problem. As a doctor he had little free time, and his normal routine was often interrupted by patients’ problems. Nonetheless, he explains how, in his 20s, he started adhering to a daily health routine:
“after I reached the age of 28, having persuaded myself that there is an art of hygiene, I followed its precepts for the whole of my subsequent life, and was never sick with any disease apart from the occasional ephemeral fever in some degree.”
This routine involved eating one full meal each evening, and doing some sort of exercise every day. One of these exercises may have been wrestling, as he also mentions dislocating his shoulder while wrestling at the gym at the age of 35.
Ax wounds…
Face of Killed Pharaoh ‘Seqenenre the Brave’ Revealed
Scientists have meticulously reconstructed the face of Seqenenre-Tao II, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who met a brutal end 3,500 years ago. Known as 'The Brave,' Seqenenre-Tao II was either slain during a nighttime capture or in battle at the age of 40, as he fought to free Egypt from the Hyksos in 1555 BC.
A team of archaeologists at Australia's Flinders University including Cicero Moraes accomplished this remarkable reconstruction by utilizing CT scans and X-rays of the pharaoh's damaged skull. The resulting image reveals a ruler with small eyes, lips, and high cheekbones, providing a haunting glimpse into the past and a closer look at how this ancient king met his fate.
Extreme Violence in Ritual Execution
From past visual examinations, it was already known that Seqenenre has suffered severe blows to the head that had almost assuredly caused his death.
Then, in 2021, Dr. Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology from Cairo University uncovered new details about the death of the famed Egyptian Pharaoh Seqenenre-Taa-II (or Seqenenre the Brave), who ruled the southern region of a divided Egypt in the 16th century BC.
Using an innovative technique known as paleoradiology, Dr. Sahar Saleem deployed computer tomography (CT) technology to perform a deep and detailed scan of Seqenenre’s mummified remains, which had been excavated from a necropolis in the ancient city of Thebes back in 1881. The findings were published in Frontiers in Medicine magazine.
Unexpected…
Burial of Two Infants Found Under Dragon Stone At Prehistoric Armenia Site
An international team of scientists has unearthed the remains of two infants buried beneath a basalt monument known as a dragon stone at the Lchashen site in Armenia. This finding is remarkable not only for the unusual funerary context but also for the exceptional preservation of the remains, and the genetic information gleaned from said funeral.
Dragon stones, or Vishapakar, are prehistoric basalt stelae adorned with animal images, primarily found in the Armenian Highlands and surrounding regions. These structures have long fascinated archaeologists due to their mysterious iconography and complex history of use and reuse, as per a new study published in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Approximately 150 dragon stones have been documented, with more than ninety located in the Republic of Armenia and the rest in neighboring regions. These monoliths vary in height, ranging from about 150 to 550 cm (59 – 216.5 inches).
Archaeologists have identified three types of dragon stones: those with carvings resembling fish (piscis), those depicting the remains of bovids such as goats, sheep, and cows (vellus), and hybrid dragon stones that combine features of both types.
The study was conducted by an international and multidisciplinary team of researchers from various institutions, including the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, the University of Copenhagen, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and other leading universities and research centers.
These stones are adorned with carvings of animal imagery, such as fish heads or serpents, which are believed to represent vishaps, the water dragons of Armenian folklore. The majority of these monoliths are situated near mountain springs or canals, indicating a likely ritual connection with water.
Talking of dragons…
Origins of 'Welsh Dragons' Finally Exposed by Experts
A large fossil discovery has helped shed light on the history of dinosaurs in Wales.
Until recently, the land of the dragon didn't have any dinosaurs. However, in the last ten years, several dinosaurs have been reported, but their life conditions were not well known. In a new study by a team from the University of Bristol and published in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, important details have been revealed for the first time.
They found that early Welsh dinosaurs from over 200 million year ago lived on a tropical lowland beside the sea. Dinosaur trackways are known from Barry and other sites nearby, showing that dinosaurs had walked across the warm lowlands.
The discovery was made at Lavernock Point, close to Cardiff and Penarth, where the cliffs of dark-colored shales and limestones document ancient shallow seas. At several levels, there are accumulations of bones, including the remains of fish, sharks, marine reptiles and occasionally, dinosaurs.
Former student of the Bristol MSc in Palaeobiology Owain Evans led the study. He explained:
The bone bed paints the picture of a tropical archipelago, which was subjected to frequent storms, that washed material from around the surrounding area, both in land and out at sea, into a tidal zone. This means that from just one fossil horizon, we can reconstruct a complex ecological system, with a diverse array of marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and placodonts in the water, and dinosaurs on land.
I had visited the coast at Penarth all my life, growing up in Cardiff, but never noticed the fossils. Then, the more I read, the more amazing it became. Local geologists had been collecting bones since the 1870s, and most of these are in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
Cindy Howells, Curator of Palaeontology at the National Museum of Wales, adds:
"The collections from Lavernock go all the way back to the 19th century, with many sections of the bone bed being collected over the years. The presence of dinosaur fossils at the site ensure that it remains one of the most significant localities for palaeontology in Wales."
See the not-actually-real dragons…
Cool tomb…
Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, the Masterpiece of Ancient Artisans
The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak is a remarkable archaeological site located near the town of Kazanlak in central Bulgaria. Discovered in 1944, it is a stunning example of Thracian artistry and a window into the rich cultural tapestry of the ancient Thracian civilization, which thrived in the Balkans from around 4000 BC until the Roman conquest in the first century AD. The tomb, dating back to the late 4th century BC, is part of a larger necropolis, indicating that the region was a significant burial ground for Thracian nobility. This site has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which further emphasizes its global cultural and historical importance.
The tomb is most renowned for its elaborate frescoes, which are among the best-preserved masterpieces of Hellenistic art in the Thracian rendition. These frescoes provide invaluable insights into Thracian funerary practices, social hierarchy, and their aesthetic preferences. The burial chamber, the heart of the tomb, is adorned with intricate paintings that depict various aspects of Thracian life and beliefs about the afterlife. The vibrant murals are notable for their detailed portrayal of a Thracian noble couple, presumably the occupants of the tomb, partaking in a ceremonial feast.
This scene, central to the tomb’s iconography, illustrates the importance of banqueting as a ritual that affirmed social status and reinforced the connection between the living and the dead. Ritual feasts persisted as a cultural aspect of many other civilizations that came long after the Thracians.
One of the most striking features of the frescoes is their vivid use of color and sophisticated techniques, which reflect a high level of artistic achievement. The frescoes employ a palette dominated by red, blue, yellow, and green, applied in a manner that creates depth and movement. The artists utilized a technique known as wet fresco, or buon fresco, where pigments are applied on freshly laid lime plaster. This method allowed the colors to penetrate the plaster and become part of the wall surface, resulting in their remarkable preservation over the millennia. The frescoes also exhibit a keen understanding of human anatomy and movement, suggesting that Thracian artists were well-versed in the artistic conventions of their time, influenced by both Greek and indigenous traditions. The discovery of this art served to break some of the modern misconceptions about this ancient culture.
Big pics…
Giant Petroglyphs in South America May Mark Territorial Borders
In the 18th century, explorers navigating the vast Orinoco River, a major waterway spanning the northeastern corner of South America, reported sightings of numerous rock engravings of snakes adorning the rocky hilltops. Over the centuries, the precise locations of these engravings, now situated in modern-day Colombia and Venezuela, have largely been kept alive through local oral traditions. In a groundbreaking systematic study, contemporary archaeologists have now mapped 14 sites featuring these immense pre-Hispanic artworks, predominantly depicting serpents!
Published in the latest edition of Antiquity, the study confirms both local legends and historical explorers’ accounts, proposing that these engravings may have functioned as ancient border markers or milestones.
The research team visited 157 sites with rock art, with 13 of these sites featuring engravings over a dozen feet tall! A wide variety of figures are depicted, including insects, alligators, stingrays, birds, humans, and other mammals. Among these, 60 individual engravings exceed 30 feet (9 meters) in dimension, including a centipede and two humanoid figures that may represent spirits or gods.
“Anything that size is monumental in our view,” explained Philip Riris, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University and the study’s lead author, to the New Scientist. “That means they’re often visible from quite far away, maybe 500 meters to a kilometer.
Til next time… I’ll be back…
