Chinese archaeologists have uncovered a 2,500-year-old- tomb thought to contain the skeletons of an ancient royal family. The tomb in Luoyang city, Henan province, is believed to originate from the relatively-unknown Luhun Kingdom, which only lasted 113 years between 638BC and 525BC, according People’s Daily Online.
archeology
The Maccabees, a long-lost tomb and that curious Byzantine mosaic cross that adorns it.
Egypt to repatriate 32 artefacts from Switzerland | Luxor Times
Originally posted on Luxor Times
On 1st of June, Switzerland will hand 32 artefacts which Egypt had proven that they were smuggled from Egypt after illicit digs.
Photos are courtesy of MOA
Liquid mercury found under Mexican pyramid could lead to king’s tomb | World news | The Guardian
Originally posted in The Guardian
Visitors look at the archaeological area of the Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) Temple near the Pyramid of the Sun at the Teotihuacan archaeological site, north of Mexico City. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters
An archaeologist has discovered liquid mercury at the end of a tunnel beneath a Mexican pyramid, a finding that could suggest the existence of a king’s tomb or a ritual chamber far below one of the most ancient cities of the Americas.
Mexican researcher Sergio Gómez announced on Friday that he had discovered “large quantities” of liquid mercury in a chamber below the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, the third largest pyramid of Teotihuacan, the ruined city in central Mexico.
Gómez has spent six years slowly excavating the tunnel, which was unsealed in 2003 after 1,800 years. Last November, Gómez and a team announced they had found three chambers at the tunnel’s 300ft end, almost 60ft below the temple. Near the entrance of the chambers, they a found trove of strange artifacts: jade statues, jaguar remains, a box filled with carved shells and rubber balls.
Slowly working their way down the broad, dark and deep corridor beneath the pyramid, battling humidity and now obliged to wear protective gear against the dangers of mercury poisoning, Gómez and his team are meticulously exploring…
via Liquid mercury found under Mexican pyramid could lead to king’s tomb | World news | The Guardian.
Massive Underground City Found in Cappadocia Region of Turkey
Archaeologists are exploring a sprawling network of tunnels and underground rooms discovered beneath a Byzantine-era fortress in Nevşehir, Turkey. Photograph by Murat Kaya, Anadolu Agency/Getty
When the invaders came, Cappadocians knew where to hide: underground, in one of the 250 subterranean safe havens they had carved from pliable volcanic ash rock called tuff.
Now a housing construction project may have unearthed the biggest hiding place ever found in Cappadocia, a region of central Turkey famous for the otherworldly chimney houses, cave churches, and underground cities its residents carved for millennia.
Discovered beneath a Byzantine-era hilltop castle in Nevşehir, the provincial capital, the site dates back at least to early Byzantine times. It is still largely unexplored, but initial studies suggest its size and features may rival those of Derinkuyu, the largest excavated underground city in Cappadocia, which could house 20,000 people.
By Jennifer Pinkowski
First published in National Geographic…
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Found Islamic Coins Hidden Inside Viking Age Shield Boss
Remains of a leather purse with several Islamic coins were found inside this shield boss. (Photo: Åge Hojem / NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology)
In August 2014 a hobby archaeologist found a Viking Age sword with metal detector in a field in Skaun, just south of Trondheim in Central Norway. Now, archaeologists have examined the finding and have some exciting news about the owner.
Having examined the grave, archaeologists at the NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology in Trondheim tell NRK that it is dated to about the year 950. In addition to the sword, researchers found the remains of a shield.
– We have not managed to find out who owned the sword, but we know that he was a well traveled man, says archaeologist Ingrid Ystgaard.
Radiographs show that there is an inscription on the sword blade that tells that it probably has been produced…
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Medieval Swedish Sword Found in Siberia
The scientists would be keen to hear from European experts who could throw more light on its origins. Picture: The Siberian Times
German made, Adorned in Sweden
How is it possible that a German-made 12th century blade, adorned in Sweden, reached Siberia?
Buried under a tree in the Novosibirsk region, Archaeologists discovered a medieval sword. Unearthed in 1975 scientists are looking to unlocking it’s secrets with the help of European experts. It is the only weapon of its kind ever discovered in Siberia.
What is known is that it’s origins lie in the Rhine basin of Germany, this beautifully engraved sword then possibly traveled to the Swedish mainland, or Gotland an island of Sweden were it was adorned with an ornate silver handle and Norse ruse pattern.
The blade was made in the Rhine basin of Germany in late 12th or early 13th century. Pictures: The Siberian Times
Mother of…
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Analysis of Skeletal Remains Confirms King Sverris Saga
The castle as it appeared when King Sverre ruled. (Photo: Sverresborg Trøndelag Folk Museum)
On 17 November, in a well in the King Sverre Sigurdsson’s caste (Norwegian: Sverresborg) in Trondheim it was found a skeleton which according to Sverris Saga is a Bagler from 1197 AD. Analysis of the skeleton proves that the saga tells the truth.
The Sverresborg castle, also named Zion after King David’s castle in Jerusalem, was built about 1182-83 AD on a plateau in the medieval city of Nidaros by Sverre Sigurdsson (Old Norse: Sverrir Sigurðarson, c. 1145 – 1202). Sverre was King of Norway from about 1184 to 1202 and considered one of the most important rulers in Norwegian history.
He assumed power as the leader of the Birkebeiner rebel party in 1177 during their fight against King Magnus Erlingsson. After Magnus was killed at the Battle of Fimreite in 1184, Sverre became the sole…
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Why Is This the Only Existing Viking Age Helmet?
This iron helmet is the only one that is found in Scandinavia dating back to the Viking Age. Why are not more found? (Photo: Museum of Cultural History, Oslo)
In 1943, extraordinarily rich finds from the Viking Age were made in Haugsbygd in Ringerike, Eastern Norway. The finds included – among many other objects – the only helmet dating back to the Viking era found in Scandinavia.
Helmets are described in the Norse Sagas, and almost exclusively in association with chiefs and kings. Illustrations from the Viking Age are almost non-existing, but in some cases where the Vikings are depicted with ships, it looks as if they are wearing a helmet. Or is it really helmets? It is suggested that the Vikings actually wore pointy hoods as protection from the weather.
Unique Findings
March 30 1943, during World War II in Nazi-occupied Norway: On the farm Gjermundbu in Haugsbygd in…
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Sunken Egyptian treasure gets European tour
![A marble head of Antonia Minor, the mother of the Roman emperor Claudius, found in the Alexandria harbour [Credit: Christoph Gerigk, © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation] Read more at: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.gr/2014/10/sunken-egyptian-treasure-gets-european.html#.VFIJK778tyE Follow us: @ArchaeoNewsNet on Twitter | groups/thearchaeologynewsnetwork/ on Facebook](https://firstnighthistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/egypt-tour_01.jpg?w=473&h=294)
A marble head of Antonia Minor, the mother of the Roman emperor Claudius, found in the Alexandria harbour [Credit: Christoph Gerigk, © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation]
An exhibition featuring artefacts discovered off the coast of Egypt is set to tour Europe. “Egypt’s Sunken Secrets” is organised by Franck Goddio, the founder of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, in association with Egypt’s Ministry of State for Antiquities. Artefacts have been selected from museums across the country, including 18 from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, while over 200 come from recent underwater explorations by Goddio’s team…
Read more at: archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com
Holding Hands for 1,500 years
The skeletal remains of a Roman-era couple reveal the pair has been holding hands for 1,500 years.
Italian archaeologists say the man and woman were buried at the same time between the 5th and 6th century A.D. in central-northern Italy. Wearing a bronze ring, the woman is positioned so she appears to be gazing at her male partner.
“We believe that they were originally buried with their faces staring into each other. The position of the man’s vertebrae suggests that his head rolled after death,” Donato Labate, the director of the excavation at the archaeological superintendency of Emilia-Romagna…
Read more: Discovery News
Roman coins discovery in England
This video is called Roman coins (English version).
From daily The Guardian in Britain:
Roman coin hoard, one of the largest found in UK, unearthed by builder
Laurence Egerton found haul of 22,000 fourth-century coins in Devon last November and slept in his car for three nights to guard it
Press Association
Friday 26 September 2014 17.28 BST
One of the largest hoards of Roman coins ever discovered in the UK has been unearthed by a builder.
Metal detector enthusiast Laurence Egerton discovered the haul of 22,000 fourth-century copper-alloy coins in Devon in November last year.
After uncovering the coins on the Clinton Devon Estates, near Seaton Down, Egerton reported the find to the landowner and the local authority – and slept in his car for three nights to guard it.
The hoard was then carefully removed in its entirety by a team of archaeologists. Over the past 10…
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Billy & Charley’s Shadwell Shams | Spitalfields Life
This is the most magical tale I have ever read about mudlarks in Victorian London and proves that it is possible to fool a lot of people a great deal of the time!
Originally posted on Spitalfields Life.
William Smith & Charles Eaton – better known as Billy & Charley – were a couple of Thames mudlarks who sold artefacts they claimed to have found in the Thames in Shadwell and elsewhere. Yet this threadbare veil of fiction concealed the astonishing resourcefulness and creativity that these two illiterate East Enders demonstrated in designing and casting tens of thousands of cod-medieval trinkets – eventually referred to as “Shadwell Shams” – which had the nineteenth century archaeological establishment running around in circles of confusion and misdirection for decades.
“They were intelligent but without knowledge,” explained collector Philip Mernick, outlining the central mystery of Billy & Charley, “someone told them ‘If you can make these, you can get money for them.’ Yet someone must also have given them the designs, because I find it hard to believe…
Read more: Billy & Charley’s Shadwell Shams | Spitalfields Life.
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