Unleashed Debrief: Atlantis Metal, Prehistoric Sex Bias, Moche Queen's Throne Room and a Monumental Battle Zone
Greetings the Unleashed!
It’s a mixed bag, but I’ve got some cracking finds and discoveries for you this week. Here’s a peek at what’s in store:
Recovery of Ancient Greek Shipwreck Underway: Dive into the ongoing excavation of the “Gela II” shipwreck off the coast of Sicily, where rare orichalcum metal, linked by Plato to Atlantis, was uncovered.
5,600-Year-Old Cemetery with a Striking Gender Imbalance: Why does a prehistoric grave site in Spain contain twice as many women as men?
New Findings at the Battle of Malazgirt Site: Monumental structures and artifacts found at the site the 1071 AD battle that shaped Anatolia’s history and led to the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
Remarkable Viking Skeletons Unearthed in Denmark: Well preserved Viking burials recently discovered in Åsum, expose their social hierarchies.
Moche Throne Room Discovery in Peru: Journey to Pañamarca, where archaeologists have uncovered a high-status woman’s throne room adorned with painted architecture.
Mysteries of English Word Origins: People were very curious about the unknown origins of some common English words like “boy” and “dog.”
DNA Reveals Cannibalized Sailor from Doomed Arctic Expedition: The identification of a sailor from Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic voyage has been pieced together through DNA and Inuit oral traditions.
Oldest DNA from South Africa Decoded: fewer than two dozen ancient genomes have been recovered from southern Africa, and some have been reconstructed.
Without further ado, here they are…
Dive in…
Recovery of the Greek Shipwreck With Orichalcum Cargo Begins in Sicily
Recovery operations on the ancient Greek shipwreck “Gela II,” dating back to the 5th century BC, have officially commenced near the port of Gela, Sicily. The wreck is where in 2015 and 2017, rare orichalcum metal said to be from the legendary Atlantis was recovered. Due to this, details of the shipwreck have been keen sought by both Atlantis enthusiasts and the archaeological world.
The project, led by the Superintendence of the Sea of the Sicilian Region, involves the collaboration of specialized companies Atlantis and Cosiam, with a budget of €500,000 under the Pact for the South 2014-2020.
The project aims to uncover crucial historical artifacts from the seabed, adding to Gela’s rich maritime heritage. The sunken vessel has been dismantled and the timbers brough from the depths to the land, where they will undergo preservation.
“The sea of Gela has returned finds crucial for the reconstruction of its history,” said Francesco Paolo Scarpinato, Sicilian regional councilor for Cultural Heritage, according to a press release.
Sex bias…
5,600-Year-Old Cemetery Contains Two-Times More Women as Men!
An interdisciplinary research team has made a startling discovery at a prehistoric grave site in Spain’s Granada: a striking imbalance in the burials, with twice as many women as men! This gender bias is even more pronounced among juveniles, where the ratio stands at a whopping 10 females for every male. Can the researchers find an explanation?
The Panoría megalithic necropolis, situated at the easternmost point of Sierra Harana, consists of at least 19 graves, nine of which were excavated between 2015 and 2019. The research and excavations have been led by the Archaeometry research group from the University of Tübingen and the GEA research group from the University of Granada. “The Panoría population shows a clear sex ratio imbalance in favor of females, with twice as many females as males,” scientists wrote in the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
A Clear Sex Ratio Imbalance: the Science
These collective burial sites have yielded more than 55,000 skeletal remains. Radiocarbon dating places the first interments at around 5,600 years ago, with the site in intermittent use until about 4,100 years ago.
The researchers employed new bioarchaeological techniques to determine the chromosomal sex of the individuals buried here. Researchers analyzed DNA and a protein called amelogenin, found in tooth enamel, to create a detailed demographic profile of those interred. These cutting-edge methods are crucial for studying human remains where traditional skeletal analysis alone may not provide reliable sex identification, especially when the bones are fragmented or degraded.
Amelogenin was key to this study because it plays a critical role in identifying biological sex, as its levels differ greatly between males and females. By studying this protein in the teeth of the individuals buried at Panoría, researchers were able to obtain a precise and reliable profile of the sex distribution within the population.
Game changer…
Monumetal Structure and Weapons Reveal Site of the Battle of Malazgirt
In addition to the 700 plus objects unearthed exactly a year ago, and along with arrowheads discovered in the last week of August, archaeologists have uncovered further evidence of the physical traces of the Battle of Malazgirt. The epic late-11th century conflict, contested between the dwindling Byzantine Empire and the Seljuks, has been a source of awe and mystery for centuries. Now, archaeologists have discovered a monumental new structure, 7 meters (23 feet) in size with a square plan containing five graves, pointing to the possibility of Seljuk martyrdom at the site.
Battle of Malazgirt: Changing Anatolia Forever
As part of The Malazgirt Battlefield Archaeological Project, archaeologists have focused their efforts on uncovering the material evidence of the 1071 AD battle that forever changed world history. As a result of this battle, Byzantine authority declined in Anatolia and Armenia, paving the way for the gradual Turkification of Anatolia, and the eventual blossoming of the Ottoman Empire.
Dem bones…
50 Danish Viking Skeletons Unearthed in a State of ‘Exceptional Preservation’
Over the past six months, archaeologists from Museum Odense have uncovered more than 50 remarkably well-preserved Viking skeletons in the village of Åsum, located east of Odense in southern Denmark. These finds shed light on the daily lives of the people who lived in the area during the 9th century, when Gorm and Thyra reigned in Jelling, providing further evidence of the vast distances Vikings traveled to trade.
According to Michael Borre Lundø, an archaeologist and museum inspector from Museum Odense, the artifacts discovered alongside the skeletons suggest that Vikings engaged in far-reaching trade networks.
"This discovery offers extraordinary opportunities to perform a wide range of scientific analyses, which can reveal more about the general health, diet, and origins of those buried," said Lundø, in a statement.
Elite and High-status Burials in Viking Denmark
Several of the individuals buried in Åsum appear to have held high status, as indicated by the elaborate grave goods found with them. Among the most notable discoveries is a woman who was buried in what appears to be the remains of a Viking wagon, possibly one she had traveled in during her lifetime.
The woman was laid to rest with an array of personal items, including an elaborate glass bead necklace, a knife with a handle wrapped in silver wire, and an iron wrench. Interestingly, a small shard of glass—possibly used as an amulet—was also found among her belongings.
At the foot of her grave was a finely decorated wooden box, though its contents currently remain a mystery.
Another grave contained a variety of objects as well, including a small bronze three lobed brooch, a single red glass bead that likely hung around the neck of the deceased, an iron knife, and a piece of rock crystal.
The crystal is of particular interest as it is not native to Denmark and likely originated from Norway. Lundø explains that these foreign objects demonstrate the extensive trade connections Vikings maintained with distant regions.
Painted Throne Room of a Powerful Moche Woman Revealed at Pañamarca
Archaeologists and conservators working at the Moche site of Pañamarca in the Nepeña Valley of north-coastal Peru have discovered a pillared throne room with imagery and evidence that it was used by a high-status female leader – likely a priestess or a queen.
In July, the Archaeological Landscapes of Pañamarca research project discovered unprecedented painted architecture at the site. The research project, first founded in 2018, is designed to understand the activities that took place at Pañamarca and its surroundings in the ancient past.
The Remarkable Moche Center at Pañamarca
Pañamarca is the southernmost monumental center of the Moche culture—a society that made their homes in the coastal valleys of northern Peru between about 350 and 850 AD.
Moche archaeology is well known for its rich, elite tombs, impressive architecture and artworks, and elaborate religious artifacts and imagery. Constructed atop a granite hill in the lower Nepeña Valley, Pañamarca consists of an imposing stepped adobe platform, two lower—yet expansive—adobe platforms, a large adobe walled plaza, and numerous other structures including a Formative-period masonry building.
Curiously popular…
Five Common English Words We Don’t Know the Origins of – Including ‘Boy’ and ‘Dog’
The naming process, the act of naming the items of the world, is as old as the first words spoken by our ancestors. We can reconstruct the stages of this process through etymology, which studies the historical development of the lexicon of a language.
English words tell a lot of stories. To get back to their origins, linguists apply the comparative method. Languages are not isolated entities, but belong to linguistic families – English is a west Germanic language from the Indo-European family, for example – and their vocabularies are connected.
In the comparative method, linguists compare cognates (the same words in different-but-related languages, like mother in English, māter in Latin, and mutter in German) and reconstruct the ways these words were pronounced by ancient speakers.
By doing this, linguists give a voice to our ancestors, travelling back in time towards prehistoric ages with no written records. It’s difficult and complex, but very cool stuff.
Cannibalized Sailor From Doomed Arctic Expedition Identified Through a DNA
For over a century, the skeletal remains of sailors from Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the Northwest Passage were scattered along the rugged shores of an Arctic island. Bleached and battered by the elements, nearly a quarter of these anonymous bones bore the chilling signs of cannibalism, marking a tragic end to one of history’s most famous voyages. Now, after years of meticulous research by Canadian scientists, one of those sailors has been identified, and is Captain James Fitzjames from London, who captained HMS Erebus.
This breakthrough came after researchers isolated DNA from one of Fitzjames’s molars, which was then matched to living relatives. The identification represents a major milestone in the study of Franklin’s expedition, which departed England in 1845 in hopes of conquering the elusive Northwest Passage, and is the subject of a brilliant new study published in The Journal of Archaeological Sciences.
Inuit Oral Traditions: Paving the Way For Discovery
Fitzjames, a Royal Navy officer, had already sailed to destinations like Syria, Egypt, China, and the Americas before commanding HMS Erebus alongside HMS Terror on the fateful journey. However, the expedition ended in catastrophe, with all 129 crew members perishing in the unforgiving Arctic conditions.
Between 1847 and 1859, at least 36 search expeditions scoured the Arctic in hopes of locating Franklin’s lost ships, but all failed. It was only when researchers turned to Inuit oral traditions that the resting places of the Erebus and Terror were discovered within the last decade.
While the wrecks were only recently found, the remains of crew members were discovered much earlier on the southwest coast of King William Island in Nunavut. Search teams came across boats tied to large sleds, seemingly in preparation for a journey toward the Back River.
“What was the plan following the desertion of the ships? Did they travel as a single group? How do we understand the bodies of 20 sailors in this one spot? There are so many questions we still have and we’re trying to get a better understanding of what was happening. It’s challenging and it’s fascinating; no other British polar exploration suffered such a catastrophic loss as the Franklin Expedition,” said Douglas Stenton, adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and lead author on the research, in a press release.
Cracking genomes…
Oldest DNA from South Africa Decoded
Thirteen ancient human genomes from the Oakhurst rock shelter in South Africa provide new insights into human history in the region.
Ancient DNA has provided spectacular insights into human history, particularly in Europe and Asia, where researchers have reconstructed the genomes of thousands of people. However, fewer than two dozen ancient genomes have been recovered from southern Africa - specifically Botswana, South Africa and Zambia - which has some of the world's earliest evidence of modern humans, with the oldest genomes dating back around 2,000 years.
A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) have analyzed human remains from the Oakhurst rock shelter in southernmost Africa and reconstructed the genomes of thirteen individuals, who died between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago, including the oldest human genome from South Africa to date .
"Oakhurst rock shelter is an ideal site to study human history, as it contained more than 40 human graves and preserved layers of human artefacts, such as stone tools, going back 12,000 years," says Victoria Gibbon, Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of Cape Town and co-senior author of the study.
"Sites like this are rare in South Africa, and Oakhurst has allowed a better understanding of local population movements and relationships across the landscape over nearly 9,000 years."
Read on…
Til next time… all that glitters is not gold, or necessarily from Atlantis.
Gary Manners - Senior Editor, Ancient Origins