A recreation of the military sandals. (Photo: Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD))

The Roman Empire is renowned for its vast extent, reaching from England's moors to fertile crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates in the Near East. The Roman armies conquered this vast expanse over many years and emperors, with legions of soldiers stepping foot on far reaches of the empire. These conquering armies set up camp to rule the outposts of the empire, bringing Roman military culture and artifacts to locals. Evidence of this cultural dispersion through conquest was recently discovered in Bavaria, Germany. An ancient Roman sandal, largely decayed but reconstructed through X-ray, suggests the spread of military fashion to local populations.

The singular sandal was discovered near the city of Oberstimm, Bavaria, Germany. The site was once home to a military fort full of Roman soldiers and surrounded by civilian encampments. The sandal was found in the latter during excavations. The ancient civilians walked the site between 60 and 130 CE. During this time, the singular sandal found its way into the archeological record. Once discovered in the present day, it was in two pieces. Only the sole with nails and remnants of other material were present.

Archeologists X-rayed the sandal to learn more about it. The X-ray demonstrated the shoe was of the type known as a caliga. These were used by the military. They had tough soles with hobnails which provided traction for the troops. Many leather straps, as demonstrated by the artist's drawing, were tied up to encase and protect the foot. This design would have been more comfortable for marching.

By the end of the first century CE, the Roman army began using boots. However, clearly during their occupation of the fort in Bavaria, the Roman military footwear spread to the local civilian population.

“So-called caligae were mainly worn by Roman soldiers during the Roman Empire,” Amira Adaileh, Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD) said in a statement. “The find makes it clear that the practices, lifestyles, and clothing that the Romans brought with them to Bavaria were adopted by the local people.”

The remains of an ancient Roman army-style sandal in Bavaria, Germany, demonstrates the reach and regional influence of the conquering armies.

The sandal remains. (Photo: Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD))

An x-ray of the ancient sandals. (Photo: Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD))

h/t: [Live Science]

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The first Stegosaurus fossil to be presented at auction was just sold for a record-breaking $44.6 million. For more than 15 minutes, prospective buyers at Sotheby's in New York increased their bids to nearly 11 times the fossil's estimated value of $6 million. In the end, the Stegosaurus sold for the highest price of any dinosaur skeleton in history, beating the record of $31.8 million set by Stan the Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2020.

The skeleton was found near the town of Dinosaur in Moffat County, Colorado, in 2022. As the town name may suggest, the area is highly prized by paleontologists, due to the abundance of Jurassic era fossils found there. This particular skeleton was discovered when paleontologist Jason Cooper went on a birthday hike on his property and noticed part of a massive femur protruding from a nearby rock. The fossil was unearthed by Cooper and his team a year later, and the man worked closely with Sotheby's during the dinosaur's restoration and mounting process.

The Stegosaurus, named Apex by Cooper, is 11 feet tall and nearly 27 feet long from head to tail, making it the best-preserved fossil of its kind to ever be found. It is 70% intact, consists of 319 skeletal pieces, and is approximately a third larger than Sophie, the famous Stegosaurus displayed at the Natural History Museum in London.

Even though Apex now resides in a private collection, there is a possibility that the public could still get a chance to see the skeleton. The buyer, Citadel founder Ken Griffin, is currently exploring options to loan the dinosaur to American museums. In the coming years, Apex may have another the chance to wander North America just like he did when he was alive.

A giant Stegosaurus fossil named Apex recently broke a world record for being the highest-selling dinosaur fossil.

h/t: [Hypebeast]

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Reddish liquid contained in urn (Photo: Daniel Cosano et al., CC BY 4.0)

A family in southwestern Spain started some renovations on their house back in 2019. They quickly happened upon a tomb that was part of the ancient Roman city Carmo's necropolis, or massive graveyard. This tomb had been covered up for millennia, and as a result remained undisturbed by looters. The artifacts that lay under modern-day Carmona date to the early first century CE and have included several astonishing finds. Recently, scientists published findings on an urn which contained almost five liters of reddish-brown liquid. Laboratory tests have confirmed it is wine that's been hermetically sealed for 2,000 years. This is now the oldest known liquid wine ever found.

The wine wasn't alone though. At the bottom of the urn were the cremated bones of a man and a gold ring adorned with Janus, the Roman god of transitions with two faces looking in opposite directions. The wine and the ring were both added to the funerary urn, likely to ease the deceased on their journey to the afterlife. As the scholars wrote in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, “Given the religious significance of wine in the ancient Roman world, where it was highly symbolic and closely related to burial rituals, it is unsurprising to find vessels that might have originally contained wines among burial furnishings.”

While today the wine appears reddish, study authors and University of Cordoba chemists Daniel Cosano and Jose Rafael Ruiz Arrebola determined the wine to have originally been white wine. Using mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography, scientists determined the polyphenol and mineral salt composition of the wine. There was an absence of syringic acid, which would be present if the liquid had been red wine.

The current color is likely due to decomposition. And based on the polyphenols, study authors believe it would have been strikingly similar to modern-day Fino wines made in the region, which are a type of white sherry. While the wine has been lying in contact with cremains for two millenia, Cosano did brave having a sip of the ancient spirit. His colleague, Ruiz Arrebola, who himself declined partaking, told All That's Interesting about Cosano's observations, saying, “The flavor is salty, which is not surprising given its chemical composition, specifically its high concentration of potassium and sodium.”

Funeral chamber. (Photo: Daniel Cosano et al., CC BY 4.0)

The glass urn that contained the wine was found with five other funerary urns that each had its own loculi, or niche, in the tomb. This was likely a family tomb, with three urns holding female remains, and three male remains. Not much is known about the family, but the names Hispanae and Senicio were engraved on two separate urns. Along with the urns were more jewelry, ivory sheets believed to have been a box burnt on a funeral pyre, and plates that likely had food offerings. The excavation made headlines last year for the equally impressive find of a crystal bottle that held patchouli perfume, bringing us closer to understanding the sensorial experience of ancient Roman life.

Prior to the Carmona urn, the oldest liquid wine found is thought to be in a bottle excavated from Speyer, Germany, in 1867. This region was also part of the Roman empire in 325 CE which is the approximate vintage of the wine. However, this bottle has not been unsealed or tested as the Historical Museum of the Palatinate, which owns the bottle, is afraid of the effects of its exposure to air, and they don't want to risk shattering the bottle.

There has also been wine residue found inside pottery from 8,000 years ago in modern-day Georgia. Preventing wine decay was still a code to be cracked in Roman times, and they relied upon additives, such as salt, for longevity. The fact that this tomb evaded looters and that archaeologists are certain the urns remained isolated from flooding or leakage has created what might be a singular opportunity to study 2,000-year-old wine still in its original form.

An ancient Roman tomb was discovered in the backyard of an Andalusian family's home in Carmona, Spain.

Access to the tomb. (Photo: Daniel Cosano et al., CC BY 4.0)

Inside, archeologists found what is now the oldest-known liquid wine, and it dates back to the early first century CE.

Fig. 1. (a), (b) Funeral chamber. (c) Urn in niche 8. (d) Lead case containing the urn. (e) Reddish liquid contained in the urn. (Photo: Daniel Cosano et al., CC BY 4.0)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

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Photo: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Ancient cities carry ancient secrets under modern streets and buildings. One of the most interesting ancient cities of the Mediterranean, Constantinople, lies underneath and throughout what is now Istanbul, poking its historical fingers above ground throughout in in interesting ways. There's Hagia Sophia, the ancient church turned modern Mosque, or the ancient columns left behind by the city's Roman inhabitants. The city's fascinating history crosses empires and nations, continuing to reveal itself as archeologists expand their knowledge of what lies below the city. Recently, a series of tunnels and rooms under the ruins of the ancient Byzantine Church of St. Polyeuctus have been discovered and are being excavated, offering a window into early Christianity.

The tunnels consist of brick walls and arches, two rooms and a connecting tunnel. The subterranean complex seems to have linked to the above-ground church, which was constructed under the Emperor Justinian during the period from 524 to 527 CE. The underground portion connected to the prothesis above ground, part of an Orthodox church where the Divine Liturgy is prepared. The Divine Liturgy, still celebrated in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the Eastern name for the Eucharist and was important in Byzantine Christianity. The exact use of these connected underground rooms is not known yet, but the remaining mosaics and carvings may eventually present clues.

The subterranean complex was originally discovered in the 1960s but was stopped up with earth for preservation. The area of the city in which the above-ground ruins lie is being revitalized, and Turkish officials intend to turn the ruins into an archeological attraction. Rediscovering the ruins and the former church has ensued. The church was finally destroyed in 1204 during an attack by European crusaders. Parts of the ancient building were carried away and repurposed in Europe, such as in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453, the ruins were built over as the city developed. Its re-excavation and revitalization is just the next step in the ancient history of this plot within the ancient city. It has the potential to tell us much about the early practice of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire.

Under the ancient Byzantine Church of St. Polyeuctus, archeologists have discovered a network of brick tunnels and rooms used in some of the earliest days of Christianity.

Photo: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Photo: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Photo: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

h/t: [Live Science]

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Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0

How a society records the world, depicting its known boundaries and contents, says a lot about belief systems, science, and more. For example, the ancient Hereford Mappa Mundi was drawn in 1300 and depicts the world through a medieval Biblical lens. Or there is a surprisingly accurate crowd-sourced world map created by a Venetian monk in the 15th century. There are also the 12th-century renditions of Muhammad al-Idrisi, an intrepid scholar and traveler. But the oldest map of the known world was not made on vellum or in Europe. It was actually carved in clay and preserved 2,600 years ago in what is now known as The Babylonian Map of the World or Imago Mundi.

Legendary archeologist Hormuzd Rassam discovered the fragment of a clay tablet bearing the map in the 19th century within what is today Iraq. The British Museum acquired it in 1882, and it is still part of the museum's collection. According to the museum, the schematic map is from the late Babylonian period and dates to roughly the 6th century BCE.

It features text in cuneiform script, as well as a sun-shaped drawing with mysterious incisions. Part of the drawing has broken away over time. But researchers have been able to decode the text and the meaning of the map's symbols, which are accompanied by text. The outer circle (numbers 14 to 17 in the schematic below) is the bitter or salty water, meaning the ocean. Babylon is number 13, right below a tall mountain. It appears the Euphrates cuts a channel through the city, marking its central place in ancient Near Eastern civilization.

The number 18, above the mountain, has been translated to “Great Wall, six leagues in between, where the Sun is not seen.” This is considered a reference to sunset, or perhaps a land of darkness thought to lie behind the mountains. However, the map does not stop at labeling the ancient known world of the Babylonians; it also notes the nearby kingdoms of Urartu and Assyria.

According to the accompanying text, mystical beasts frolic across this known world. Sea serpents, winged horses, and bull-man hybrids are noted. Panthers, deer, monkeys, and wolves also roam. The foundation of civilization, the ancient Near East surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, can tell us so much about human history—starting with how ancients viewed the world.

World maps tell us about how ancient people viewed their worlds, and The Babylonian Map of the World is thought to be the oldest example of a rendition of the world.

A schematic of the map, showing for example at 7 a swamp, at 2 a city, and at 1 a mountain. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

h/t: [IFL Science]

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Relics being manually retrieved. (Photo: National Cultural Heritage Administration)

China's history is long and varied, encapsulating an evolving artistic, political, and territorial landscape. One period of famous artistic significance is the Ming Dynasty, which was named after the house of rulers who spanned the period from 1368 to 1644. During this period, China expanded its trade with other nations, sending many ships to India and beyond, especially as its classic blue and white porcelain became incredibly popular in Europe. Some of these ships inevitably met watery ends, leaving behind shipwrecks that act as time capsules from centuries ago. Since 2023, archeologists have raised over 900 exceptional artifacts from two Ming Dynasty shipwrecks in the South China Sea, as announced by China's National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA).

The South China Sea lies in the Pacific Ocean beneath China and between Vietnam and the Phillippines. It was a frequent route for trade ships during the Ming Dynasty. The two wrecks were found in 2022, about 14 miles apart on the seafloor. They lie under nearly 5,000 feet of water. In 2023, a group of researchers from different institutions set about surveying and collecting artifacts from the wrecks, work which has been ongoing over the months. Submersibles were lowered to explore the wrecks and retrieve items, while cameras and laser technology were used to photograph and 3D-map the wrecks.

Thousands of artifacts lie within the wreckage. So far, 890 pieces from the first ship, including copper coins, porcelain, and other parties, have been retrieved. The second ship has produced 38 artifacts, including deer antlers, lumber, shells, and more pottery. Thousands of further discoveries lie in wait.

It's believed that the ships may have sailed from Jingdezhen, a center of porcelain exportation. The beautiful, colorful pottery and intricate vessels in the shape of animals are beautiful examples of Ming Dynasty art styles, mostly seeming to date to the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

“The discovery provides evidence that Chinese ancestors developed, utilized and traveled to and from the South China Sea, with the two shipwrecks serving as important witnesses to trade and cultural exchanges along the ancient Maritime Silk Road,” Guan Qiang, deputy head of the NCHA, noted in a statement. Archeologists can excitedly look forward to further announcements about these remarkable finds.

Two ships sank in the South China Sea during the Ming Dynasty, leaving behind two recently discovered wrecks full of beautiful vases and other treasures.

Discoveries from the two South China Sea shipwrecks. (Photo: National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Discoveries from the two South China Sea shipwrecks. (Photo: National Cultural Heritage Administration)

The retrievals were conducted with a manned submersible named Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior). (Photo: National Cultural Heritage Administration)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

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An artist depicting Lokiceratops as it may have appeared 78 million years ago in what is now Montana. (Photo: ©Andrey Atuchin for the Museum of Evolution in Maribo, Denmark, CC BY-NC-ND)

Dinosaurs range from the tallest (sauroposeidon) to the smallest (alvarezsaur). New species are continually being discovered, and yet another unique species has resurfaced from ancient rock. This fancy four-legged beast discovered in Montana has ornate horns, inspiring its new scientific name Lokiceratops rangiformis. The discovery was announced in PeerJ.

Lokiceratops rangiformis was a massive beast that roamed Earth about 78 million years ago. Stretching 22 feet long and weighing 11,000 pounds, the dinosaur walked on four legs. It had a plant-based diet. As a ceratopsid, a type of horned dinosaur, its skull evidences its unique cranial structure. It boasts two “regular” horns on its forehead. Above that is a large bone frill that fans out behind the head. Atop this frill are two unique curling horns with tiny adjoining points, one smaller than the other. Hence the name given the new species, which honors the Norse god's horned helmet and the uneven nature of caribou antlers.

Lokiceratops also indicates that dinosaurs in the Montana and Alberta regions were more diverse and swiftly evolving than previously thought. “In addition to being one of the largest and most ornately decorated horned dinosaurs ever discovered, Lokiceratops also reveals an unexpectedly high level of richness in a Laramidia ecosystem,” Dr. Joseph Sertich tells IFL Science. Dr. Sertich is a paleontologist from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Colorado State University and was the study's lead author. “Even more surprising, three of the five horned dinosaurs that lived in this ecosystem are close relatives, revealing a surprising pattern of rapid, regionally restricted evolution in the centrosaurine group of horned dinosaurs, a pattern similar to birds and other animals that use display features.”

“Having a giant head like Lokiceratops required massive neck muscles to balance it on the body and lots of calories to grow as the animal matured,” shares co-author Dr. Mark Loewen, associate professor and vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Utah. “At the same time, it must have been so impressive to potential mates that it really was worth having such a huge head!”

This fancy dinosaur surely would have been impressive roaming its habitat millions of years ago, and its fossil remains impressive today.

Meet the Lokiceratops rangiformis, a massive four-legged dinosaur that roamed what is today Montana 78 million years ago.

Renditions of four centrosaurine dinosaurs who roamed together. (Photo: Fabrizio Lavezzi © Evolutionsmuseet, Knuthenborg, CC BY-NC-ND)

A Lokiceratops skull at the Museum of Evolution. (Photo: Museum of Evolution, CC BY-NC-ND)

h/t: [IFL Science, Gizmodo]

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A model of a Neanderthal man and child at the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 1989, excavations at a Paleolithic cave site known as Cova Negra in Valencia, Spain, turned up the remains of a Neanderthal child. The fossilized bones might at first seem little more than evidence of skull formation among these early human relatives; however, examination by scientists has revealed congenital differences in the inner ear that are indicative of Down's syndrome. A recent paper in Science Advances suggests that the discovery of the remains of a child with Down's syndrome who lived until the age of 6 indicates altruistic caregiving and the sharing of obligations among prehistoric Neanderthals.

Down's syndrome results from an extra copy of a chromosome, and today most individuals can live healthy and happy lives with appropriate healthcare and social supports. In prehistoric times, however, researchers have hypothesized that children born with the condition typically did not survive infancy. But the bones of the Neanderthal child from Valencia are not those of an infant.

The researchers estimate the child lived to about 6 to 7 years old. Similarly, they believe the formation of its remains suggest only Down's syndrome as opposed to other explanations. This child's age indicates that they survived past infancy with the devoted care of a mother.

Evidence of Neanderthals caring for one another has been documented before, but some doubt has existed among scholars over the extent of true altruism. Did Neanderthals just help those who could reciprocate? This new evidence suggests the caring was not so limited. A young child with a disability would have required care, and perhaps others in the social group had to step up to allow the mother to care for the child.

“Caregiving and collaborative parenting occurred together in Neanderthals,” the authors write, “and [this shows] that both prosocial behaviors were part of a broader social adaptation of high selective value that must have been very similar to that of our species.”

The remains of a prehistoric Neanderthal child with symptoms of Down's syndrome suggests caring and altruism among the species.

Neanderthal mother and child depicted in a model at a Czech Republic museum. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 Public domain)

h/t: [IFL Science]

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Visitors to the Perth Museum in Scotland can now explore realistic projections of historical faces brought back to life through forensic reconstruction and advanced archaeological analysis.

The Perth Museum collaborated with Chris Rynn, a craniological anthropologist, and researchers Marc Oxenham and Rebecca Crozier from the University of Aberdeen on a revolutionary project. Using the museum's collection, the scientists examined and utilized Scottish skulls from the Bronze Age, approximately 4,200 years ago, to those dated to the 14th century. In an exhibit featuring their results, visitors are welcomed with lifelike models, digitally reconstructed from the forensic information gathered. The figures dynamically change their facial expressions, bringing these ancient beings to life.

Ahead of the museum’s opening on March 30, 2024, remarkable digital facial reconstructions made from the remains of three people were shared—a 40-year-old Bronze Age woman from Lochlands Farm, a male in his 40s found in Bridge of Tilt, and a young adult male found in Perth. Beyond detailed observations of the individuals' physical features, the museum also shared circumstances surrounding the discovery of their remains: when they were found, accompanying objects, and possible reasons for their burial based on the state of their skeleton upon excavation.

Along with this display, the museum offers a valuable educational opportunity regarding Scotland's cultural heritage by providing a rich historical context and the cultural significance of each individual.

One of the reconstructed individuals was a man found in Blair Atholl. He is estimated to have lived in the 5th or 6th century and is believed to be Pictish—an individual from eastern and northern Scotland. According to the museum, he was discovered in the 1980s during construction. His coffin bore a hand-grinding stone symbol, indicating strong ties to agriculture. The museum's efforts also detail his supposed diet and migration, symbolizing Scotland's early societal and cultural connections.

The Perth Museum comprehensively explores the intricate process of creating ancient facial reconstructions. Through a step-by-step presentation, the museum emphasizes the restoration of skulls, the application of advanced digital modeling techniques, and the sculpture method used to transform the skulls into lifelike representations. Moreover, the museum also invites visitors to actively interact with the exhibit by adjusting the models' physical appearance and attempting forensic reconstruction on their own.

By offering an immersive look into Scottish heritage, the Perth Museum's ancient forensic reconstruction exhibit deepens visitors' appreciation and understanding of the region's rich historical narratives and how technology can enable us to connect with our past.

The Perth Museum in Scotland displays realistic reconstructions of ancient faces through forensic analysis.

By providing an immersive, interactive experience for visitors, the museum aims to share the historical narratives of the people who have lived in Perth.

Perth Museum: Website | Instagram | Facebook

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Photo: Department of Internal Policy of the Akimat of the Zhambyl Region

Cleaning campaigns are good news for the environment. But thanks to one of such missions in Kazakhstan, fans of archeology also have something to be excited about. During a cleanup in the the Zhambyl (or Jambyl) region, volunteers came across about 100 petroglyphs, dating back to the Bronze or Iron ages, roughly 3,500 years ago.

After the rock art was spotted, local archeologists were brought in to examine them. Petroglyphs are engravings created by chipping away at a rock face, done thousands of years ago. The ones recently found in Kazakhstan depict both hunters and animals, such as double-humped camels and argali (a type of wild sheep). The rock art was spotted in an area that is 66 feet to 82 feet long and 5 feet to 6.6 feet high per Sauran Kaliyev, an archeologist interviewed by local outlet Astana Times.

However, it appears that it's not the first time academics have heard about this place. Kazakh archeologist Viktor Novozhenov, an archeologist with the Saryarka Archaeological Institute who was not part of the cleanup, said in an interview with Live Science that the site is “not at all new.”

The archeologist added that the site has not been examined thoroughly, nor has the rock art been documented in a peer-reviewed journal. The main obstacle to this is the lack of funding needed to properly record these petroglyphs. “We don't have enough experts and funds for needed analyses and [fieldwork],” he confesses.

That's why, when Kazakh archeologists uncover new rock art, they prefer to keep the location a secret until it can be documented. On top of the need for resources, one of the main challenges in studying such sites is their potential destruction by vandals or other individuals.

For now, local officials will continue to examine the site. “We will continue our research and conduct a state examination as we intend to designate it a site of national or international significance to be included in the list of state-protected sites,” says Kuanysh Daurenbekov, director of the Directorate for the Protection and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments.

During a cleanup in the the Zhambyl (or Jambyl) region of Kazakhstan, volunteers came across about a 100 petroglyphs, dating to the Bronze or Iron ages, roughly 3,500 years ago.

Photo: Department of Internal Policy of the Akimat of the Zhambyl Region

The rock art was spotted in an area that is 66 feet to 82 feet long and 5 feet to 6.6 feet, and depict both hunters and animals, such as double-humped camels and wild sheep.

Photo: Department of Internal Policy of the Akimat of the Zhambyl Region

h/t: [LiveScience]

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