Author: j.chyla

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Rediscovering Khrami Didi Gora, Georgia’s Famous Neolithic Settlement

The Shomu-Shulaveri Neolithic culture, located in the heart of the Transcaucasian region, continues to captivate researchers. This prehistoric phenomenon, which spans the territories of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, is distinguished by its unique local characteristics. While much research has focused on communities in Armenia and Azerbaijan, settlements in Georgia, particularly Khrami Didi Gora – the largest of them all, remain mostly unexplored. Known for their agricultural and craftsmanship skills, the people of this society also appear to have had profound spiritual beliefs, as evidenced by the small anthropomorphic figurines discovered at this archaeological site. However, what did these beliefs entail? How did rituals shape their daily life and worldview? These lingering questions continue to challenge researchers, awaiting answers that may unlock the mysteries of the people belonging to this fascinating archaeological culture.

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Pre-Columbian ‘Puppets’ indicate ritual connections across Central America

  • Five expressive ceramic figurines have been discovered atop a large pyramidal structure at Preclassic San Isidro, El Salvador. 

  • Their movable heads and positioning suggest they were a kind of puppet, used in ritual scenes or ‘tableaus’.

  • Similarities with examples from other Central American countries imply interaction and shared ritual traditions across this vast region.

  • This contradicts the commonly-held belief that El Salvador was culturally isolated from the rest of Central America.

     

    Five figurines from the San Isidro deposit. Scale in centimetres (credit: J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska/PASI)

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Decorated Wari gourd vessels from Castillo de Huarmey

When we discover pre-Hispanic ruins, we often come across fragments of gourds, which might have been used as vessels or containers (Spanish: mates). Some are undecorated, others – much less common – bear rich shell inlay and pyrography (Spanish: mates pirograbados). Such exceptional items were unearthed at Castillo de Huarmey, a royal Wari necropolis. The technology of their production and their decoration deliver a lot of information about the iconography of power in the first empire of the pre-Colombian Andes.

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Kuwaiti-Polish Team Discovers Figurine, Local Pottery, and Environmental Clues

The Kuwaiti-Polish Archaeological Mission (KPAM) finished this year’s season of work at Bahra 1, a prehistoric site in the
Al-Subiyah desert of Northern Kuwait. Dating back to the mid-6th millennium BCE, Bahra 1 is among the oldest and largest known settlements in the Arabian Peninsula.

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EuroWeb: A new look at textile production in Europe

EuroWeb is a four-year research action integrating multidisciplinary research on European textiles from antiquity to the present day. Led by Professor Agata Ulanowska of the University of Warsaw, EuroWeb has united nearly 250 researchers, creators and designers.  The action changes the view of Europe’s past by considering the role of textile and textile production as a factor in the formation of European culture and identity. One of the results of the team’s activities is the Digital Atlas of European Textile Heritage, which provides data on 7,000 years of European textile heritage.

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How can we know an ancient prison when we see one?

How can we know an ancient prison when we see one? The question is a bit tricky, because prisons have proven challenging to identify in the archaeological record. One might ask, after all, aren’t they just rooms like any other rooms: four walls, single entry and exit, and a door with a locking device? What makes them different from other spaces? 

While there are certain outliers, the traditional understanding has been that prisons are generic rooms and hard, if not impossible, to distinguish. In fact, an archaeologist of the stature of Luke Lavan has recently claimed: 

“Of prisons we know little. We have no securely identified architectural evidence.” 

(Lavan 2007: 121) 

While this comment is incorrect, it does reflect the state-of-the-field in archaeology when it comes to identifying prisons. At a different level, while a few (and growing) number of prisons have been identified by excavators during the course of the 20th century, many experts would admit that they have no idea what a Roman prison looks like, which reflects the lack of anything like a typology of ancient Roman prisons. 

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Workshop on Bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia

From February 29 to March 2, 2024 an online, free workshop on “Bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia” will showcase state-of-the-art bioarchaeological research in Mesopotamia.

“Bioarchaeology” is a broad umbrella term for research on biological remains recovered from archaeological contexts. Bioarchaeologists provide information on human health, diet, workload, mobility, and more. They reconstruct past ecologies and reveal ancient changes in climate. They illuminate economies and social structures, revealing how foods were produced, homes were furnished, and cities were cleaned (or not). They contribute information vital to understanding why people in the past settled where they did, and why they abandoned settlements.

Workshop on Bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia/ورشة العمل حول البيوأثرولوجيا في بلاد ما بين النهرين

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Toro Muerto – researching pre-Columbian petroglyphs

The archaeological site of Toro Muerto, one of the largest assemblages of rock art in the world, lies in a small desert valley to the west of the Andean foothills. Much of it is decorated with petroglyphs (rock engravings) created by representatives of several local cultures who, over many centuries (probably from the beginning of our era until Inca times), came to this unique site to take part in ceremonies.

Watch the video describing the research at the site

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Seventy-three intact burials with carved masks discovered at Pachacámac

Seventy-three intact burials in burial bundles, some with carved masks, have just been discovered at Pachacámac. The site of the find is an extensive complex of cemeteries from different periods at the foot of the Painted Temple. Nearby, wooden staff with images of dignitaries of the Wari Empire were also discovered.

The burials date from the second half of the Middle Horizon, that is, the time of the Wari Empire. The burial bundles were initially deposited individually and later also in groups. The state of preservation for most of them is spectacular.

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Stinky problem – where did the Maya go to the toilet?

Imagine an ancient Maya city in its heyday. You will probably see its ceremonial core, with lofty pyramids, elevated palaces, extensive plazas, and everything is either painted bright red, or blinding white. You notice courtiers strolling along private patios, and servants rushing in all directions with their daily tasks. Perhaps there you can catch a glimpse of the ruler, sitting on his cushioned throne somewhere in the guts of a complicated maze of corridors in his palace. There is a sound of a gentle breeze blowing through the roofcombs, and a murmur of indistinguishable conversations. Faint smells of food mix with those of flowers… Then you step outside of the core, and everything changes. Perishable architecture intertwines with small houselot gardens, there are people everywhere, and they all seem to be shouting. Dogs are barking, some turkeys block your way, kids play in a muddy puddle, and you feel nauseous because of the ever-present smell of human waste mixed with odors of organic decay…

Hang on, hang on! Is that really a plausible picture?

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