Oldest Metal Object To Date In Middle East Found in Woman's Tomb

The Oldest Metal Object Found to Date in the Middle East

According to Dr. Danny Rosenberg of the University of Haifa’s Zinman Institute of Archeology, the copper awl is a unique and very rare artifact, whose discovery, along with other items during the excavations at Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, indicates that the site was an ancient international commercial center

Released:21-Aug-2014 4:00 AM EDT
Source Newsroom:University of Haifa

 

Newswise — A copper awl, the oldest metal object found to date in the Middle East, was discovered during the excavations at Tel Tsaf, according to a recent study published by researchers from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology and the Department of archaeology at the University of Haifa , in conjunction with researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the German Archaeological Institute of Berlin. According to the study, which appeared in the prestigious journal PLOS One, the awl dates back to the late 6th millennium or the early 5th millennium BCE, moving back by several hundred years the date it was previously thought that the peoples of the region began to use metals.

Only 4 centimeters long, and originally set in a wooden handle.

Three 4,000-5,000 Year Old Female Burials Uncovered in Kent

Major discoveries.  Note the photo below showing TWO henges, one of which appears to be untouched!  The description of the "triple pot" is also absolutely fascinating.  Are the women related?  Could they be mother and two daughters, for instance?  The ages seem about right.  But -- who knows.  We may never know, unless DNA testing is done on bone fragments from the three females' remains.  And that pot - I want to know more about that!

What is most incredible is that the British Isles have been one of the most intensively occupied countries for thousands of years, and yet all of these wonderful things continue to be discovered -- it seems nearly daily there is something in the archaeological news about this or that being uncovered.

From Discovery News
Prehistoric Teen Girl's Grave Found Near Henge
The finding of the 17-year-old girl's grave adds more evidence that henges were linked to death rituals.

By Jennifer Viegas
Thu Oct 6, 2011 02:31 PM ET

Four to five thousand years ago, a wealthy teenage girl was laid to rest in a grave at what archaeologists believe is a newly found henge in Kent, England.

The discovery of the 17-year-old's grave -- along with a unique prehistoric pot inside of a ringed ditch near two other women -- strengthens the idea that important death-related rituals took place at many of these mysterious ancient monuments when they were first erected.

"What is becoming clear is that with a series of major excavations in Kent linked to road and rail works, and new aerial photography, there are many circular earthworks that look part barrow and part henge, and like the one fully excavated example at Ringlemere (Kent), some of these may be both," said archaeologist Mike Pitts, publisher of British Archaeology, where a summary of the recent finds appears.

"This comes after many years in which archaeologists believed there were no henges in south-east England at all," Pitts told Discovery News.

Staff from Oxford Wessex Archaeology, during recent extensive excavations, discovered the early teen's grave on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, near what is now Manston Airport. The girl was buried laying on her side with flexed limbs, with an unusual pot standing by her right elbow.

Pitts explained that the pot consists of three small bowls joined together. Separately made pots were joined with bridging clay before decorating and firing, he suspects. Neil Wilkin, a researcher at the University of Birmingham studying early vessels, said the features of the pot confirm its suspected age and attribution.

Only one other example of multiple joined pots from the time has been seen before, Pitts said. In that other case, just two small bowls were attached together.

Two other women, aged 25-30 and 35-50, were also found buried inside the 72 feet-wide ditch. It remains unclear if the number of attached pots was somehow tied to the number of women found at the site. What is clear is that they must have been wealthy individuals. A conical amber button was located near the teenager's head. She might have then worn clothing bejewelled with amber accents.

A separate Kent excavation, near Maidstone, uncovered the new likely henge. Such monuments are seen across Britain, but this latest one may be only the second henge known to exist in south-east England.

The actual "circle" or henge is the one that is barely visible where one part of it touches the road -

the white line cutting across the northeast corner of the photo.. You can see the "indentation"

where the excavation is taking place.  The other smaller circle that is more clearly delineated

near the center of the field does not appear to have been touched!

Pitts said the henge "is 49 meters (161 feet) across with clear entrances at the north-west and south-east...Two parallel straight ditches were seen apparently preceeding the ring ditch on the west, and two lengths of enclosing ditch were also exposed."

Paul Wilkinson, who conducted the dig and is director of the Kent Archaeological Field School, found charcoal, bones and pottery laying on the surface of both ditch terminals. Some of the pottery was discovered crushed and in tight clusters with small fragments of burnt bone, suggesting the pots had been urns holding cremated remains.

"The clincher will be if it is Grooved Ware," said Pitts, who explained that this type of decorated pottery tends to be associated with many henges.

Kent may be home to even more henges, according to archaeologist Paul Hart of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology. He explained that "sandstone doggers (boulders) can be found in deposits which are exposed in the cliff of Pegwell Bay and may also exist in pockets along the southern coast of the Isle."

Accessibility to materials like these boulders, and the stones of Stonehenge, likely influenced where early monument builders worked. But henges made of wood were probably even more common, leaving behind what are now often difficult-to-detect traces of their existence.

Copper Age Burial Uncovered in Bulgaria

A rather confusing article, but an intact burial from the Copper Age, rare, may be incredibly important to putting together more pieces of the puzzle of the past.  The Copper Age has different date ranges depending on the area of the world.  In Bulgaria, it was perhaps dated from 7000 to 6500 BCE to about 3500 BCE or later.

From The Sophia Echo
New archaeological discovery illuminates practices from the copper age
Thu, Jul 28 2011 13:25 CET

A well preserved skeleton from the copper age has been discovered in an archaeological reserve in Kozareva mound near Kableshkovo in Pomorie.

The discovery marks an exciting new development for the village that was also a centre for the pottery industry during the fifth century BCE.

According to the head of the excavation, Professor Petya Georgieva, this is the first confirmed tomb from such an early period in southern Bulgaria. The tomb was apparently intact and the bones well preserved. It is still unclear whether the necropolis, in the Neolithic village, which was discovered five years ago, adheres to the first funeral rites characteristic of the Black Sea region.

Scientists claimed in 2009 that the discovery of the oldest ceramic kiln in the Balkans had helped to shed light on the beginnings of civilisation on the Bulgarian coast.

Archaeologists hope that the most recent find will help reveal what happened to the dead in the copper age.

"In the mound we found products of human skulls such as the rondeli, a circle of skulls with drilled holes in them so they can be attached to the neck," says Georgieva.

A separate neolithic tomb, discovered, near Burgas is expected to provide clues regarding the ethnicity of Bulgarians of that era.

Done in by an Arrow in the Back

Ach!  What a way to go.  Poor dude from the Chalcolithic age (yeah, I said the same thing - what the heck is that?) bled to death.  The "in plain English, please" name for Chalcolithic age is the Copper Age.  That "age" varies, depending upon the location of the civilization, as the use of metal-working spread from place to place.  In this case, in Turkey, the generally accepted dates are Early Chalcolithic Period (5500 - 4500 BCE.); Middle Chalcolithic Period (4500 - 4000 BCE.); Late Chalcolithic Period (4000- 3000 BCE.

The tumulus (burial mound) where the body was excavated dates as far back at c. 8000 BCE. 

From todayszaman.com (Turkey)
Tumulus skeleton found with arrow tip in spine
09 December 2010, Thursday / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

The body of a man with an arrow tip still lodged in his spine was found during ongoing excavations in Bursa’s Aktopraklık tumulus. Archeologists believe that the man had died shortly after he was shot with an arrow from a bowman on higher ground. The tumulus where the skeleton was buried is estimated to have a history of about 8,500 years.

“This tomb of a man in his 30s from the early Chalcolithic period did not seem unusual at first glance. He was buried in accordance with the burial traditions of the period. … On closer examination of the skeleton, we discovered a deep arrow wound in the bottom of his spine,” paleoanthropologist Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg from the excavation team told the Anatolia news agency. “The arrow tip explained the cause of this Aktopraklık man’s death almost precisely,” she said.

Roodenberg also noted that the arrow tip was made of flint and it was lodged 12 millimeters into the spine. “It is most likely that the arrow struck his spine and damaged the abdominal aorta, which was located near the path of the arrow. This indicates that the man died shortly after he was injured [via the arrow],” she explained.

Adding that it is very probable that the man died quickly due to excessive bleeding, the paleoanthropologist said: “It seems that he was injured not far from the village and was taken back to the village shortly after he died. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to be buried in the traditional fetal position. “Although it is hard to tell whether the man was a warrior, hunter or just a peasant, this finding will certainly attract attention in the near future,” she added.

Roodenberg also noted that the tumulus, whose history stretches back to about 8,500 years ago, is one of the earliest farming villages. Nearly 60 tombs have been discovered during excavations at the ancient site, which were launched seven years ago with the support of the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality. The tombs are from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.

“Rites for burying the dead give us clues about the belief systems of prehistoric people. Details including the shape of the tombs, the way the bodies are positioned or objects buried near the dead reveal much information,” she added.