Tag: Rock

Calendar Rock to Mark the Winter Solstice Found in Sicily

Post author By Ginger.Perales
Post date January 12, 2017

Seeker, adding: “At 7:32 am the sun shone brightly through the hole with an incredible precision. It was amazing.” The 23-foot tall stone would have marked the turning point of the seasons and the change to colder weather. The moment likely had ritualistic importance as well, considering the investigation revealed the site was considered a sacred place towards the end of the third millennium BCE. A short distance away from the stone, researchers unearthed a number of complete burials referred to as grotticella tombs. Dug out of the rock, the chamber-like tombs were the primary form of burial for the Castelluccio’s, the culture that thrived in the early Sicilian Bronze Age. La Spina’s research team also located what seems to be a menhir (upright stone) to the east of the holed rock. Although lying on its side when discovered, the more than 16 feet tall stone originally stood upright, as indicated by the pit found near its base. The geological composition of the menhir and the calendar rock are not the same, suggesting the monolith was transferred to the site from another location. “It stood at a distance of 26 feet, right in front of the rock’s hole. This obviously reinforces the sacrality of the site.” La Spina is quoted as saying in Seeker. At least two additional holed stones have been unearthed in Sicily. They were discovered near Palermo by Alberto Scuderi, the Italian Archaeologist Group’s regional director and an archeo-astronomy expert, who told Seeker: “The newly found calendar rock appears to have been made by the same hand that carved the other two rocks. One lined up with the rising sun at the winter solstice, the other produced the same effect with the rising sun at the summer solstice,” adding, “For this reason, I believe that another holed calendar stone, marking the summer solstice, may be found near Gela.” ]]>

Tags Archeologist, Calendar, Hole, Rock, sicily, Solstice, Winter

Breaking News

Forensic Analysis Answers 40,000-Year-Old Question

Post author By Ginger.Perales
Post date December 23, 2016
No Comments on Forensic Analysis Answers 40,000-Year-Old Question

Phys ORG: “Archaeologists are interested in hand stencils because they provide a direct, physical connection with an artist living more than 35,000 years ago. Now, using a new experimental application, results from our study indicate it is possible to determine with more than 90% accuracy the sex of someone who lived tens of thousands of years ago from the shape and size of their hand outline. We have even applied the method to hand stencils where digits are missing – common in Paleolithic art – something prior studies have not been able to do.” The hand stencils were created by blowing pigment over a hand as it was held against a stone surface, when the hand was removed it left behind an outline of its shape. Hand stencils discovered in Sulawesi, Indonesia have been dated to 40,000 years ago, and the ones found in Europe are an estimated 37,000 years old, a time period referred to as the Upper Paleolithic. Prior to this research, experts studied the size of the hand and the length of the fingers to determine the gender of its owner, which often led to conflicting outcomes. For this project, researchers used geometric morphometrics to determine sex-based differences in the shape and form of the hand. By digitizing hand stencils from a known gender, along with a number of 2D landmarks, the true shape and the relative size of each sample could be statistically evaluated. Geometric morphometrics is the statistical analysis of a specific type of geometric data associated with an organism, data about the location of the parts of an organism in relation to each other. This technique combines morphometrics (the geometry of organisms) with engineering and computer science to focus on information at location points inside of, or on, organisms. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Patrick Randolph-Quinney told Phys ORG: “The problem with focusing on hand size and finger length is that two different shaped hands can have identical linear dimensions and ratios. To capture shape, we applied geometric morphometrics, a technique used in forensic studies that had never been tested on hand stencils before. This geometric approach is very powerful as it allows us to look at the palm and fingers independently. It revealed that the shape of the palm is actually most indicative of the sex of the individual, rather than the finger size or length.” The project was a collaborative effort between archaeologists, biologists, and anthropologists from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and the University of Liverpool in the UK, and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa. The research has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. ]]>

Tags analysis, gender, hand, Research, Rock, Stencil

Breaking News

1,900-Year-Old Inscription Identifies Unknown Judean Ruler

Post author By Ginger.Perales
Post date December 6, 2016
No Comments on 1,900-Year-Old Inscription Identifies Unknown Judean Ruler

Times of Israel: “Not only were we able for the first time to identify with certainty the name of the ruler who oversaw Judea in the critical years of the Bar Kochba revolt; this is also just the second time that the mention of Judea has been discovered in inscriptions traced back to the Roman era.” With seven lines, the inscription is the longest ever discovered as part of a maritime excavation in Israel. Although a portion is missing, it’s believed to read: “The City of Dor honors Marcus Paccius, son of Publius, Silvanus Quintus Coredius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus, governor of the province of Judea, as well as […] of the province of Syria, and patron of the city of Dor.” The third and last of the major Jewish–Roman Wars, the Bar Kokhba revolt was a revolt of the Jews in the Roman province of Judea against the Roman Empire. The failure of the First Revolt had led to rising religious and political tensions around changes in the city’s administration, an economic downturn and an increased Roman presence in Judea. These conditions, along with the banning of circumcision, construction of a new city on top the ruins of Jerusalem and the building of a temple honoring Jupiter on the Temple Mount, all led to the uprising. The port city of Dor was established around 2,000 BCE, during the Middle Bronze Age, while its documented history starts in the Late Bronze Age and ends with the Crusader period. The port was the dominating factor in the success of the town all through its 3000-year history, serving all the diverse cultures that occupied it as a commercial port. With between 100 and 200 students and volunteers on site each excavation season, Dor is among the largest ongoing archeological sites in Israel. ]]>

Tags archeology, Dor, Israel, revolt, Rock, Ruler

Breaking News

Mythology Comes to Life in Bulgarian Rock Grave

Post author By Ginger.Perales
Post date July 11, 2016
No Comments on Mythology Comes to Life in Bulgarian Rock Grave

Archaeology of Bulgaria as Hellenistic period body and head adornments, with 11 rings that bear the images of ancient deities like Nike, the victory goddess. Archaeologists also found a silver coin used in the ancient Greek city of Maroneia, which was located on the coast of the Aegean Sea. The coin, a tetradrachm, was used as an obol, a coin which was ritually placed under the tongue of a deceased person as payment to the Charon, the mythical ferryman of Hades who transported the souls of the deceased across the rivers Acheron and Styx to the underworld. Several of the artifacts recovered from the grave are believed to have been produced in either Maroneia or other Greek cities along the Aegean coast, which is only 100 km away. Some however, were made in the prehistoric Thracian Odrysian Kingdom. The combination of imported and locally made items is believed to be evidence of the material culture enjoyed by these ancient people. The Thracians were actually a group of individual Indo-European tribes that inhabited a large region in southeastern Europe. It’s generally accepted that the Thracian people were in existence starting in the early Bronze Age. In Greek mythology, Thrax (also known as Thracian) was known as one of the sons of the god Ares. The excavations are being privately funded by businessman Alexander Mitushev, who made headlines last year when he purchased a Bronze Age archaeological artifact; a toy stork which could be the oldest children’s toy in Europe. An amateur archaeologist, Mitushev discovered a stone altar last year only 4 meters from the rock grave. ]]>