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More on Oldest rock art in Egypt discovered

Using a new technology known as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), a team of Belgian scientists and Professor John Coleman Darnell of Yale have determined that Egyptian petroglyphs found at the east bank of the Nile are about 15,000 years old, making them the oldest rock art in Egypt and possibly the earliest known graphic record in North Africa.

Belgian archaeologist Wouter Claes poses with a panel with wild bovids (Bos primigenius or aurochs) at the Qurta II site [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

The dating results will be published in the December issue of Antiquity (Vol. 85 Issue 330, pp. 1184–1193). The site of the rock art panels is near the modern village of Qurta, about 40km south of the Upper-Egyptian town of Edfu. First seen by Canadian archaeologists in the early 1960s, they were subsequently forgotten and relocated by the Belgian mission in 2005. The rediscovery was announced in the Project Gallery of Antiquity in 2007.

Wooden scaffolding constructed in March 2008 to reach the rock art at the Qurta I site. The Nubian sandstone scarp to the left of this location has been quarried away [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

Wooden scaffolding constructed in February 2007 to allow access to the rock art at the Qurta I site. The northern edge of the Kom Ombo Plain with the village of Qurta is in the background. The Nile runs right behind the large hill in the far distance [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

The rock art at Qurta is characterized by hammered and incised naturalistic-style images of aurochs and other wild animals. On the basis of their intrinsic characteristics (subject matter, technique, and style), their patina and degree of weathering, as well as the archaeological and geomorphological context, these petroglyphs have been attributed to the late Pleistocene era, specifically to the late Palaeolithic period (roughly 23,000 to 11,000 ago). This makes them more or less contemporary with European art from the last Ice Age — such as the wall-paintings of Lascaux and Altamira caves.

Detail of the main rock art panel at the Qurta I site, showing how the makers of the rock art used the relief of the rock surface to lend volume and movement to the animal images [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

Detail of the main rock art panel at the Qurta I site, showing several wild bovids (Bos primigenius or aurochs) and a stylized human figure with outstretched arms (center below) [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

“The palaeolithic rock art at Qurta reveals that the well-known cave art of the late Pleistocene in Europe was not an isolated phenomenon. Qurta puts North Africa firmly in the world of the earliest surviving artistic tradition, and shows that tradition to have been geographically more wide-spread than heretofore imagined,” commented Darnell, professor of Egyptology. The authors of the study note that while archaeologists generally did not dispute the estimated age of the images, proof in the form of indirect or direct science-based dating had hitherto been lacking.

American archaeologist Elyssa Figari recording rock art at the Qurta I site. The panel contains 33 images, including 25 wild bovids and a stylized human figure [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

In 2008, an interdisciplinary team of scientists directed by Dirk Huyge of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (Belgium) discovered partly buried rock art panels at one of the Qurta sites. The deposits covering the rock art, in part composed of wind-blown sediments, were dated at the Laboratory of Mineralogy and Petrology (Luminescence Research Group) of Ghent University (Belgium) using OSL dating. This technology can determine the time that has elapsed since the buried sediment grains were last exposed to sunlight and offers a direct means for establishing the time of sediment deposition and accumulation. Based on analysis provided through this method, it was determined that the petroglyphs at Qurta are at least 15,000 years old. This is the first solid evidence that the rock art dates from the Pleistocene age, making it the oldest graphic activity ever recorded in Egypt and the whole of North Africa.

The Qurta I site is situated along a small canal. The scaffolding high up the hillslope indicates the location of the main rock art panel [© RMAH, Brussels/Yale University]

The fieldwork for this study was funded by the William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Endowment for Egyptology of the Yale Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. The laboratory analyses were supported by the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders. In addition, the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo and Vodafone Egypt offered administrative and logistical support

Author: Dorie Baker | Source: Yale University [November 10, 2011]

Israelis mapping Mount of Olives necropolis

A Jewish group in Jerusalem is using 21st-century technology to map every tombstone in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives, a sprawling, politically sensitive necropolis of 150,000 graves stretching back three millennia.

A Palestinian worker pushes a donkey loaded with cement bags past the cemetery at the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem. A Jewish group in Jerusalem is using 21st-century technology to map every tombstone in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives, a sprawling, politically sensitive necropolis of 150,000 graves stretching back three millennia [Credit: AP/Ariel Schalit]

The goal is to photograph every grave, map it digitally, record every name, and make the information available online. That is supposed to allow visitors to find their way in the cemetery, long a bewildering jumble of crumbling gravestones and rubble surrounded by Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. Beset for many years by neglect, it is among the oldest cemeteries in continuous use in the world.

Around 40,000 graves have been mapped so far by the team, which began work in 2008. They expect to finish recording all of the intact gravestones — an estimated 100,000 in total — by the end of next year. The rest are either so old they are unrecognizable or lie underneath later layers of burial.

Mappers look at aerial photographs, consult handwritten burial records dating back to the mid-1800s, walk along the rows of graves and dig through piles of dislocated tombstones, noting names and dates.

"This place has been used for burial since there have been signs of life in Jerusalem," said Moti Shamis, a member of the mapping team. "The cemetery is a mirror of the city — in wartime, we see more graves. When new groups of Jews reach the city, the names on the graves change."

Like so much in Jerusalem, this project is linked to the city's fraught politics. The mappers are from an organization called Elad, affiliated with the settlement movement, which also works to move Jews into east Jerusalem in an attempt to prevent the city's division in any future peace deal.

Elad has made it its business to develop sites of Jewish importance in east Jerusalem, reinforcing the Israeli presence in the part of the city the Palestinians want as their capital.

Jews began burying their dead on the hill that later became known as the Mount of Olives about three millennia ago. It was a convenient site a short walk from the city walls. Over the centuries, burial here became linked to a prophecy in the Book of Zecharia according to which the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the mount, splitting it in two. Those interred on the hill, this belief posited, would be the first to be resurrected.

The mount became, and remains, a sought-after place to be buried for Jews in Israel and abroad.

"As a place of burial it differs from almost every other on earth, in being, as no other is, a witness to a faith that is firm, decided and uncompromising until death," wrote Norman Macleod, a missionary, after a visit in 1864. "It is not therefore the vast multitude who sleep here, but the faith which they held in regard to their Messiah, that makes this spectacle so impressive."

Member of the mapping team Moti Shamis surveys ancient graves at the Mt. of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem. A Jewish group in Jerusalem is using 21st-century technology to map every tombstone in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives, a sprawling, politically sensitive necropolis of 150,000 graves stretching back three millennia [Credit: AP/Ariel Schalit]

Numerous churches were also built here, associated with events in the life of Jesus. In Christian burial grounds and crypts on and around the mount visitors can find the remains of people like Princess Alice of Battenberg, mother of Prince Phillip of Britain, and Russian Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, killed during the Russian Revolution with the rest of the czar's family.

The project is mapping only the Jewish cemetery, which includes several burial monuments from the time of the second Jewish Temple, about 2,000 years ago. Among the oldest graves that still bear names is one of a medieval scholar, Ovadia of Bartenura, an Italian who came to Jerusalem and died here around 1500.

The work of the mappers has solved several mysteries, one of them that of the missing grave of Shmuel Ben-Bassat.

Ben-Bassat was a soldier who died in combat in the war that surrounded Israel's creation in 1948. He was buried on Jan. 14 of that year, before Jewish forces lost the cemetery, along with the rest of east Jerusalem, to the Jordanian army.

For the next 19 years Jordan controlled the cemetery, paving over part of it to build a road, using gravestones to pave paths in a nearby military camp and abandoning the rest to disrepair. When Israel recaptured the Mount of Olives in 1967, the soldier's family could find no trace of him.

Going through old burial records as part of the new project, the mapping team discovered a note saying he had been interred "next to Gader Gurjis and in front of Deborah, the widow of Reuven Mirabi." Those graves still existed. Ben-Bassat now has a military gravestone.

Sometimes the graves recount small tragedies, like that of Joseph Almozig, a Jewish conscript in the Turkish army in World War I who was charged with desertion in 1916.

Almozig's broken gravestone says he was "executed by hanging at the hands of the Turkish government." Next to him is his mother, Hanina, whose tombstone from more than three decades later notes that to her right lies Joseph, her only son.

Elsewhere in the cemetery lies Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the man responsible more than any other for reviving Hebrew as a spoken language, and a national hero in Israel. He was buried here in 1922. Nearby is Menahem Begin, buried in 1992 in a modest grave that makes no mention of the fact that he was Israel's prime minister.

Begin requested burial here, rather than in the country's national cemetery alongside other Israeli leaders, because he wanted to be close to two fighting comrades who killed themselves with grenades moments before they were to be hanged by the British in a Jerusalem prison in 1947.

Some see the new mapping work in the cemetery as part of what might be termed Jerusalem's "grave wars," by which Israelis and Palestinians use their dead to bolster their claims to the holy city.

Last year, Israeli authorities accused Israel's Islamic Movement of manufacturing about 300 graves as part of what was supposed to be a restoration of a Muslim cemetery in west Jerusalem. Elsewhere in the same cemetery, an Israeli initiative to build a Museum of Tolerance on land that contained human remains has drawn fierce criticism from Muslims. More recently, Palestinians have sparred with Israeli officials and archaeologists over use of part of a different Muslim cemetery just outside the walls of the Old City.

"On the Mount of Olives, we have a cemetery that is undoubtedly important to the Jewish people, but we also have a battle over land," said Yonathan Mizrahi, an archaeologist whose group, Emek Shaveh, is critical of much of the Israeli activity in east Jerusalem as heedless of Palestinian residents.

"The cemetery is identified as Jewish and thus as Israeli and there is an attempt to say — this is a place that needs to be under Israeli control," he said.

Author: Matti Friedman | Source: Associated Press [November 17, 2011]

Roman-era bath revealed in İzmir

İzmir’s ancient Greek city of Metropolis has reentered the archaeological spotlight with the discovery of a Roman bath, which is covered with mosaics and is rectangular and sculptures of Zeus and Thyke. Archeologists also find gladiator figures at Metropolis Ancietn City, which is located between the villages of Yeniköy and Özbek in İzmir.

The Roman-era baths found at the ancient Greek city of Metropolis [Credit: AA]

Recent archaeological excavations in İzmir’s ancient city of Metropolis have led to the discovery of a Roman bath featuring a sculpture of the goddess of luck Thyke and a sculpture of Zeus. The excavations also revealed gladiator figures.

Metropolis, which is located between the villages of Yeniköy and Özbek, is the site of many excavations because of its ancient ruins.

Excavation work has been continuing for 20 years with the support of the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Sabancı Foundation, the Metropolis Foundation and Torbalı Municipality, Serdar Aybek, a scholar at Trakya University’s Archaeology Department and the Metropolis excavation president, told Anatolia news agency.

Aybek said there were many cultural aspects in Metropolis that belong to the Geometric period and Hellenistic times. Metropolis was a city of art, according to Aybek.

“Metropolis has a 5,000-year-old history, and it was situated during the early Bronze Age,” Aybek said, and excavations have revealed some ceramic pieces from the early Bronze Age and middle Bronze Age.

During the excavations, archaeologists also found accessories from the Hittite era. Metropolis was situated near the ancient city of Ephesus and all the buildings and sculptures in the city were made with perfection, Aybek said. “Metropolis is a Hellenistic ancient city.”

Ancient Greeks believed Artemis protected the city, he said. “This is something that we have never seen in the Anatolian ancient cities and this makes the Metropolis ancient city even more mysterious,” Aybek said.

During four months of excavations archaeologists unearthed a Roman bath in Metropolis.

“This year we have discovered new buildings in Metropolis,” said Aybek, adding that one of these structures was a 100-square-meter Roman bath.

The bath is covered with mosaics and is rectangular, Aybek said, adding that it included a sports area.

“The new Roman bath unearthed this year is smaller than the other baths in Metropolis,” Aybek said. “Next year, we will focus on these areas.”

The sculptures of Zeus and Thyke were discovered in the bath, which is thought to have been built in the second century B.C. by the Emperor Antininus Pius, Aybek said.

The ancient city of Metropolis was first investigated through archaeological field work in 1972 by Professor Recep Meriç from the Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir. Excavations on the site, which feature Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman traces, began in 1989. The earliest known settlement at the site is from the Neolithic Age, showing evidence of contact and influence with the Troy I littoral culture.

A still-undeciphered seal written in hieroglyphics similar to those of the Hittites has also been found Metropolis’ acropolis. The Hittite kingdom of Arzawa had its capital Apasas (later Ephesus) roughly 30 kilometers to the southwest.

Metropolis was a part of the Hellenistic kingdom of Pergamum, and during this period the city reached a zenith of cultural and economic life. A temple dedicated to the war god Ares, one of only two known such temples, was also located here.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [November 16, 2011]

Excavation and restoration work at Germenicia

Intensive digging, exploration and restoration activities at the ancient site of Germenicia, found by accident during illegal digs in the city of Kahramanmaraş, have ended for the year, with the focus now being placed on local expropriation of land.

The discovery of the Germenicia site, as a result of illegal digging and home repairs that occurred in Kahramanmaraş in 2007, caused great excitement, especially as some of the floor mosaics decorating villas on the site have entered world archaeology literature. As far as tourism expectations are concerned, the Germenicia discovery has also filled area residents with great hope. Effort has been put into protecting the site, now that the first section of digging has been completed for this year.

Efforts to expropriate land have picked up speed, as digs in four different districts of the city have brought to light mosaics at 23 different locations. Culture and Tourism director Seydi Küçükdağlı has noted that in the first stages of these efforts, 22 different parcels of land will be expropriated using funds from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Recalling that in 2010, the Council of Monuments in Adana expropriated 146 acres of land, Küçükdağlı said: “This is a very large area of land. So we know our work is going to be difficult. These floor mosaics are spread over a wide residential area. This is why the public expropriation part of this project is very important to us. We will start with the areas that the ministry sees as being particularly urgent.”

Küçükdağlı said the ministry believes that Germenicia as a site will act as a locomotive for tourism in the region and although work was going slowly, the mosaics being uncovered would be revealed for the entire world to see.

He noted that the greatest aim at this point was to see the construction of some sort of “archaeological park” that would allow visitors to see and admire the mosaics where they were found, rather than in a museum.

The ancient site of Germenicia

The mosaics of Germanicia are of the quality and level of iconography that allow them to be compared to those found at Turkey’s Zeugma site. Germenicia is spread out over a wide area that encompasses 146 acres of land. The districts of Kahramanmaraş where the sites are found are Dulkadiroğlu, Bağlarbaşı, Namık Kemal and Şeyhadil, all of which have been declared third-degree protected areas or protected zones.

Germenecia is thought to have been a fourth or fifth century Roman city, with residents who were generally comparatively quite wealthy and aristocratic. Its discovery is expected to turn Kahramanmaraş into one of the world’s most important centers for mosaics. The ancient site is thought to have around 100 villas, each with around 15-20 rooms. The floor mosaics found at the site are believed by experts to contain many significant clues as to life -- both social and cultural -- at the time. The floor mosaics of Germenecia depict human, animal and floral figures very realistically.

Source: Todays Zaman [November 13, 2011]

Ritual camel burials discovered in UAE

The ritual burial of camels is a practice alluded to in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. Camels were sometimes tethered to the graves of their fallen masters, or slain and buried alongside heroes in battle.

Camel burial in the Wadi Harou [Credit: Antiquity]

In the Emirates, camel burials were first discovered at al-Dur and Jebel Emalah, but the most important traces of this practice come from Mileiha where dozens of camel burials, interspersed with horse burials, have been excavated by a team from the Sharjah Archaeological Museum.

The Mileiha camel burials were simple pit graves without any built structure. The camels were interred in what has been described as a natural resting position with the legs folded up under the body. This suggests that the camels were led into their burial pits, made to kneel and then slaughtered.

Of particular interest is the presence at Mileiha of both normal dromedary camels, similar in size to those found in the Emirates today, and dromedary-Bactrian hybrids which were larger and more robust than modern camels.

Previously, hybrid camels of this sort were known in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, but not in the Arabian Peninsula.

Source: The Gulf Today [November 12, 2011]

Looting of Libyan treasure highlights illicit antiquities trade

The looting of a large collection of priceless coins, statues and jewelry from a bank vault during Libya's recent civil war has highlighted the risk of looting during times of conflict.

Ancient Greek gold and silver coins listed in the original Italian inventory of the "Benghazi Treasure" which has now disappeared [Credit: CNN]

Interpol is hunting for the hoard of Roman and Hellenistic objects -- dubbed the "Benghazi Treasure" --stolen from the city's Commercial Bank in May 2011.

But the theft is not an isolated incident.

According to UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture Francesco Bandarin, the looting of antiquities and archaeological sites occurs regularly during times of conflict and even during peacetime.

It is a problem that the UN agency is constantly battling.

"In the present moment it is difficult for us to do much because the situation is still very precarious, there is no administration in place in [Libya], there are difficulties in communicating," said Bandarin.

Bandarin's main fear is that the "Benghazi Treasure" will be dispersed or, worse, in the case of the coins, melted down and sold.

The thieves reportedly drilled through the concrete ceiling of the bank vault to reach the coins and took only the most valuable items.

"It looks targeted and well-planned, they knew what they were doing," said Dr. Hafed Walda, a Libyan-born archaeologist and research fellow at King's College, London.

Few records of the treasure survive, making it even more difficult to locate, though experts believe the collection contained ancient coins excavated from Cyrenaica in Eastern Libya, as well as statues and some jewelry dating from later periods.

Rumors that artifacts from the collection have surfaced in Egypt and in Tripoli are unconfirmed, and the race to find the treasure is ongoing.

So what can be done to prevent such thefts occurring in future and how to retrieve stolen items?

"We have very different outcomes with these things," admitted Bandarin.

"The recovery of objects stolen from the museum in Baghdad [during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003] was relatively successful, most of the things were returned but this one is high risk," he said.

Authorities have some tools at their disposal: The 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

In the case of Libya, precise co-ordinates for major sites of archaeological interest were given to NATO so that they could avoid them during bombing raids.

But it is the theft of antiquities and their eventual sale that worries Bandarin most.

"It remains the fourth or fifth biggest criminal industry in the world," he said of the illegal trade, adding that countries with volatile governments tend to be most at risk.

Paul Bennett is head of British mission "The Society for Libyan Studies," which promotes and co-ordinates the activities of scholars working on the archaeology, history, linguistics and natural history of Libya.

"It is certain that there are organized bands of antiquities thieves going across the border into Egypt," he said, citing reports of grave robbing in sites in Libya.

"The problem is on the border [with Egypt], it's become very porous. We need to see far more collaboration going on between the border patrols to stop the illicit trade in antiquities," he said.

"We do have to mobilize the Egyptians because clearly, the treasure has gone through Egypt, as that is the closest border," said Bandarin.

"But even Egypt is not in the best position to help right now," he continued.

Awareness of the problem of cultural crimes is one of the biggest challenges UNESCO faces.

"It's considered less of a crime, for reasons I don't understand," agreed Bandarin.

He hopes UNESCO will one day be as successful in combating the trade as his colleagues at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

"They are extremely effective, there is almost a mass consciousness about (the protection of endangered animals) and that's not the case with us," he said.

But while the theft of the "Benghazi Treasure" signifies a devastating loss, Libyans are credited with doing much to protect their treasures since the fighting erupted.

"Throughout the conflict, locals did an enormous amount to keep their heritage safe, standing guard at sites and museums," said Bennett.

"They put themselves at risk and if it hadn't been for them, it would have been a lot worse," he continued.

As for the missing "Benghazi Treasure," it remains for auction houses and customs offices around the world to be extra vigilant.

UNESCO and Interpol will do what they can to make the issue more visible, said Bandarin.

The task is now for Libya to create a strong cultural administration to keep its treasures safe.

Author: Laura Allsop | Source: CNN [November 11, 2011]

More on Satellites reveal lost cities of Libya

University of Leicester archaeologists have made an astonishing find that could re-write history.

A mud-brick compound built by the mysterious Garamantes people [Credit: Toby Savage]

“It is like someone coming to England and suddenly discovering all the medieval castles,” according to Professor David Mattingly, from our School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

He’s referring to the discovery of structures built by the Garamantes in what is now Libya’s south-western desert wastes – challenging prevailing views of this little-known ancient civilization.

The fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya has provided archaeologists with the opportunity to explore the country’s pre-Islamic heritage fully for the first time.

Using satellites and air-photographs to identify the remains in one of the most inhospitable parts of the desert, a British team led by the University of Leicester has discovered more than 100 fortified farms and villages with castle-like structures and several towns, most dating between AD 1-500.

They have identified the mud brick remains of the castle-like complexes, with walls still standing up to four metres high, along with traces of dwellings, cairn cemeteries, associated field systems, wells and sophisticated irrigation systems.

The archaeologists will be returning to Libya as soon as security is fully restored to continue their work. They are working with the Libyan antiquities department and funded by the European Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Society for Libyan Studies and the GeoEye Foundation.

The Garamantes?

Much of our knowledge of this lost civilization is from Roman accounts that describe them as barbaric nomads and troublemakers on the edge of the Roman Empire (and they weren't the only ones).

Evidence suggests their presence in the Sahara desert as far back as 1000 BC, but the first written record of them is from 500 BC by the Greeks.

Contrary to contemporary accounts, recent research has revealed that the Garamantes were highly civilised, living in large-scale fortified settlements, predominantly as oasis farmers with innovative water extraction techniques. It was an organised state with towns and villages, a written language and state of the art technologies. The Garamantes were pioneers in establishing oases and opening up Trans-Saharan trade.

It is thought that the society declined and fragmented around 1,500 years ago due to change in climate conditions or overuse of the limited water resources.

Source: University of Leicester [November 09, 2011]

Turkey pushes for return of Sion Treasure

The Antalya Museum in southern Turkey is hoping to get back the rest of Sion Treasure from the Dumbarton Oaks Institute in Washington, D.C.

Turkey is hoping to get back the rest of Sion Treasure from Washington. The reasure is currently at the Dumbarton Oaks Institute in Washington, D.C. [Credit: AA]

The museum’s director, Mustafa Demirel, told Anatolia news agency on Wednesday that Dumbarton Oaks had a part of the Sion Treasure, adding that the Antalya Museum owned the main part of the treasure.

Recently, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts returned the top half of the Weary Heracles, Greek for Hercules, to the Antalya Museum. Turkey said the top piece was stolen from an archaeological site in Turkey in 1980 and smuggled to the U.S. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew the 1,900-year-old statue back with him at the end of a trip to the U.S. in September.

The Sion Treasure was found by a villager by accident in Kumluca town in Antalya province in 1963. The treasure, which was later smuggled abroad, was named from an inscription on an oblong “polycandelon” (multiple-lamp holder) mentioning

“Holy Sion,” possibly the church or the monastery for which the objects were intended. The monastery of Holy Sion was near present-day Kumluca. The museum director said that the Antalya Museum was located on an area of 30,000 square meters, and 60,000 artifacts were registered in the museum.

The Elmalı coins, which were returned to Turkey in 1999 after being smuggled abroad in 1984 and top half of 1,800-year-old Roman sculpture Weary Herakles, which was returned from the U.S. Sept. 25 , are on display at the Antalya Archaeology Museum.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [November 09, 2011]