In the Stone Age, pendants with potent symbolism were made from animal teeth and bones, adorning clothes or accessories and serving as rattles. Human bones were also used as a raw material for pendants, as demonstrated by a study where burial finds dating back more than 8,200 years were re-examined after 80 years. Grave 69,…
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Archaeologists had low expectations when excavations started at 35 Spaska Street in Kyiv in 2007. Two earlier archaeological surveys had been carried out here, with meager results. But now a new building was to be erected, and the site first had to be examined by archaeologists since the area is historic. Game pieces found in…
Read More “Old Norse settlers traded walrus ivory with Kyiv” »
Fair complexion, brown hair and brown, widely spaced eyes, a prominent chin, a petite figure, adorned with bronze and gold jewellery and a magnificent amber necklace: this is how the woman buried with luxurious equipment in Mikulovice near Pardubice looked like. An accurate and scientifically based reconstruction of her appearance was completed by anthropologist Eva…
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A unique compound bow from the Bronze Age nearly 2 meters tall was reconstructed from authentic materials by SUSU specialists as part of an international team. This weapon had the greatest accuracy, shooting distance and killing power in its time. Credit: Spiridon Bakas Reconstructing objects according to archaeological data is one of the most important…
A multidisciplinary research group from the University of Helsinki has renewed our understanding of the history of the Uralic language family and languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Saami and Hungarian. Bronze axe, Seima type [Credit: Simo Karisalo/Finnish National Board of Antiquities] “Observations regarding the main prehistoric developments from linguistics, archaeology and genetics can now be…
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A rare collection of bracteates – thin, single-sided medieval coins – has been dug up by a dog near the city of Wałbrzych in southwestern Poland. Experts say the items – which date back to the 13th century – are the first such large discovery in over a hundred years. Credit: Lower Silesia Heritage Protection…
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The Black Death, which plagued Europe, West Asia and North Africa from 1347-1352, is the most infamous pandemic in history. Historians have estimated that up to 50% of Europe’s population died during the pandemic and credit the Black Death with transforming religious and political structures, even precipitating major cultural and economic transformations such as the…
Read More “Black Death mortality not as widespread as long thought” »
Ukrainian archaeologists have discovered a burial with grave goods dating from the third century AD near the village of Kariv, Chervonohrad district, Lviv region, according to the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Lviv Regional State Administration. Credit: Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Lviv Regional State Administration The finds are attributed…
Read More “1,700-year-old Gothic burial unearthed in Ukraine’s Lviv region” »
Beginning in August 2021, the Sambia Peninsula Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is conducting archaeological excavations at the Putilovo-2 soil burial ground ahead of a proposed highway construction in the Zelenogradsky district, in the Kaliningrad region of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Funerary inventory…
Read More “Graves of ‘amber elites’ unearthed in Russia’s Sambia Peninsula” »
A new multidisciplinary study by an international team reports the discovery of an ivory pendant decorated with a pattern of at least 50 punctures, creating an irregular looping curve. The direct radiocarbon date of the ornament yields an age of 41,500 years. This result indicates that the Stajnia Cave jewellery is the oldest punctate ornament…
Read More “Earliest evidence of humans decorating jewellery in Eurasia” »
