World Fitness Blog : Leading Global Bloggers

April 13, 2024

Archaeologists Uncover Mysterious Structure, Weaponry From Neolithic Era

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , — admin @ 8:00 pm

Archaeologists in France have uncovered a preserved settlement while investigating an area ahead of it being turned into a gravel pit. A horseshoe-shaped enclosure serves as the center of a number of settlements, burial grounds, and other structures stretching across 15 acres in Marliens.

The interlocking structures appear to make up a monument. Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP) reported (via Ancient Origins) that a layer of gravel found indicates that there was once a stake fence on the property. The outlet noted that “this type of monument [is] unprecedented.”

Pauline Rostollan/INRAP

Pauline Rostollan/INRAP

Though the date of its construction has yet to be determined, experts posit it dates back to the Neolithic period, roughly 7,000 to 1,700 B.C.E. This is backed up by the presence of several other objects on the land, such as daggers and arrowheads.

A bundle of objects discovered under topsoil included seven flint arrowheads, two archer’s armbands, a flint lighter, and a dagger made of copper alloy.

Found on several of the armbands were traces of iron oxide which corresponded to pyrite, an essential material for starting fires during the Neolithic period. While experts confirmed that this combination of objects is usually present at a burial ceremony, their specific purpose hasn’t been determined.

Pauline Rostollan/INRAP

This is just the latest in a succession of major archaeological discoveries in 2024.

A “richly decorated Roman villa” was recently discovered at a site in England, while a sunken harbor town was uncovered at the bottom of the Black Sea. The latter discovery mirrors a similarly remarkable find made last month in the Mediterranean.

At the historical site of Pompeii, archaeologists recently located a 2,000-year-old, nearly intact fresco, in addition to well-preserved mythological paintings in a luxurious banquet hall.

Source

October 17, 2023

Archaeologists Find 11,000-Year-Old Statue Clutching Its Own Penis

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , — admin @ 8:52 pm

Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed an 11,000-year-old statue of a man who appears to be clutching his penis. It was found alongside several other statues, including that of a life-size boar.

The sculpture of the man was discovered at the site of Karahan Tepe in Turkey’s Şanlıurfa Province. According to a statement from Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the statue stands over seven feet tall, with its ribs, spine, and shoulders especially pronounced. It also suggests the person may be shown as being dead.

While scientists are unsure of the statue’s exact age, the site at Karahan Tepe dates back 11,000 years and has been the discovery ground for many other statues and artifacts.

Ted Banning, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the discovery, spoke with Live Science about its significance. “Any interpretation of the statue is conjectural at this point,” he said, but confirmed that it was likely the person was depicted as being dead. Banning said the person on whom it was based was “an important ancestor associated with the building in which it was found.”

Banning also believes this to be true based on its unique pose. “The fact that the figure is clutching its penis potentially [symbolizes] that this person was the progenitor of a social group, such as a lineage or clan, associated with the building,” he confirmed.

A photograph taken at the archaeological site of Karahantepe in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey on October 9, 2023, shows a newly found 2.3-meter high human statue (R), a stone man seated, clutching his sex with both hands, a vulture at his feet on the wall of a room. On this archaeological site, a stone statue, over 2.30 m high and seated on a bench adorned with a leopard, was discovered at the end of September in south-east Turkey, at the heart of a complex of some twenty sites that were home to thousands of humans during the Stone Age, twelve thousand years ago.

OZAN KOSE/Getty Images

A photograph taken at the archaeological site of Karahantepe in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey on October 9, 2023, shows a newly found 2.3-meter high human statue (R), a stone man seated, clutching his sex with both hands, a vulture at his feet on the wall of a room. On this archaeological site, a stone statue, over 2.30 m high and seated on a bench adorned with a leopard, was discovered at the end of September in south-east Turkey, at the heart of a complex of some twenty sites that were home to thousands of humans during the Stone Age, twelve thousand years ago.

OZAN KOSE/Getty Images

The sculpture of the wild boar was found at the Göbekli Tepe site, about 22 miles from Karahan Tepe. It dates back to 8700 B.C. and 8200 B.C., according to the German Archaeological Institute, and is flecked with pigment, giving scientists reason to believe it was painted at one time.

Banning believes that the structures at Göbekli and Karahan may have been used as homes rather than temples, “in which case it makes a lot of sense that each would have its own lineage ancestor,” he explained of the statues.

Professor and director of the department of prehistory at Istanbul University Necmi Karul shows the 1.20 m long, 70 cm high newly found polychrome wild boar at the archaeological site of Gobeklitepe, southeastern Turkey on October 9, 2023. With its red eyes and teeth and black-and-white body, this 11,000-year-old wild pig is “the first colored sculpture from this period discovered to date.”

OZAN KOSE/Getty Images

Professor and director of the department of prehistory at Istanbul University Necmi Karul shows the 1.20 m long, 70 cm high newly found polychrome wild boar at the archaeological site of Gobeklitepe, southeastern Turkey on October 9, 2023. With its red eyes and teeth and black-and-white body, this 11,000-year-old wild pig is “the first colored sculpture from this period discovered to date.”

OZAN KOSE/Getty Images

Source

September 29, 2023

Huge Archaeological Discovery Made Within Egyptian Pyramid

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: , , — admin @ 7:44 pm

Scientists have unearthed previously unknown rooms in the pyramid of Sahure in Giza, Egypt.

The dig was led by Mohamed Khaled, an Egyptologist at Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg (JMU) in Germany. His team unearthed a number of chambers (or “magazines”) which likely stored “funerary furniture.” They promise to give new insight to the pyramid itself, as well as to the pharaoh Sahure himself, who ruled around 2500 B.C., during the Fifth Dynasty.

According to his report on the findings, Khaled’s mission was to safeguard the pyramid’s integrity. In 2019, he and his team set about stabilizing the structure from within, going from room to room. During this process, they came upon the chambers which had been inaccessible to previous explorers. 

Of course, that was a great moment,” Khaled told Men’s Journal. “We were jumping from happiness [because] we have achieved something that no one [had] done before.” His team and the construction workers had an impromptu party to celebrate.

During a similar mission in 1836, John Perring had seen indications of passageways which he suspected led to storage rooms, but they were inaccessible due to debris and general decay. Khaled and his researchers used 3D laser scanning to intricately map the inside and outside of the pyramid, giving them a slight edge. Thanks to their efforts, John Perring’s hypothesis has finally been proven true. “We were able to do this thanks to our technology and the good team,” Khaled said.

Describing their discovery, the Egyptologist told us: “The rooms are magazines for the funerary furniture of King Sahure. Unfortunately, we did not find anything inside, but one can imagine that King Sahura had more treasures than King Tutankhamun. The state under Sahura’s reign had a very strong economic situation.”

Khaled says the rooms were used as storage for “funerary furniture.”

Mohamed Khaled / Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg

Eight chambers have been excavated so far. Most of them have suffered severe deterioration over the years, but parts of the original walls and some of the floor can still be seen. In order to ensure the pyramid didn’t collapse at some point Khaled and his team replaced the damaged walls with new retaining walls.

Once the restoration is complete, Khaled and his team hope to open it up to visitors, so that everyone can explore King Sahure’s secret rooms.

Mohamed Khaled examines the passageways within the pyramid.

Mohamed Khaled / Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg

Source

Powered by WordPress