Archaeology
Guiding serpent sculpture discovered at Chichén Itzá
Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered a serpent sculpture at the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá, located in the Tinúm Municipality of the Mexican state of Yucatán.
Chichén Itzá was a pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period. The city was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic (AD 600–900) through the Terminal Classic (AD 800–900) and into the early phases of the Postclassic period (AD 900–1200).
Excavations have been financed by the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones by the Federal Government. This has led to the discovery of a serpent sculpture which served to guide the route from the Kukulcán Pyramid, also known as El templo, to the Sacred Cenote in the north of the city civic precinct.
The Sacred Cenote is a limestone sinkhole, which according to Maya and Spanish post-Conquest sources (later confirmed by archaeological studies), was used for depositing ritual offerings and human bodies in sacrifice to the Maya rain god, Chaac.
Kukulcán Pyramid – Image Credit : Shutterstock
The serpent statue is orientated towards the Sacred Cenote and delimited the sacbe, meaning “white road”, which was a ceremonial route constructed to connect important structures or plazas with ceremonial centres.
Archaeologists suggest that statue and sacbe is a symbolic representation of Kukulcán, the Yucatec Maya Feathered Serpent god.
During the spring and fall equinoxes, the shadow cast by the angle of the sun and edges of the nine steps of the Kukulcán Pyramid, combined with the northern stairway and the stone serpent head carvings, create the illusion of a massive serpent descending the pyramid.
José Francisco Osorio León, an archaeologist from INAH said: “We found that the sacbé is an extension of the feathered serpent that comes down from the pyramid and leads towards the cenote. We have the head of the snake that defines the wall of the sacbé with its body, and there is another snake on the opposite side, but we do not have the complete head.”
Header Image Credit : La Crónica de Hoy
An archaeological survey has identified three clusters of ancient qanats in the Diyala Province of Iraq.
A qanat, also known as a kārīz, is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well over long distances in hot dry climates without losing water to evaporation.
Qanats use a sequence of vertical shafts resembling wells, linked by a gently inclined tunnel that serves as a conduit for channelling water. Qanats efficiently transport substantial volumes of underground water to the surface without requiring pumps.
The water naturally flows downhill by gravity, with the endpoint positioned at a lower level than the origin. When the qanat is still below ground, the water is drawn to the surface via water wells or animal driven Persian wells.
Image Credit : State Board of Antiquities & Heritage
Some Qanats are divided into an underground network of smaller canals known as kariz, functioning similarly to qanats by staying beneath the surface to prevent contamination and evaporation. In certain instances, water from a qanat is stored in a reservoir, usually with nighttime flow reserved for daytime usage.
The technology for qanat’s first emerged in ancient Iran around 3,000-years-ago and slowly spread westward and eastward.
A recent survey within the Diyala Province has discovered three clusters of qanats stretching between the areas of Jalulaa and Kortaba. Initial studies dates the clusters to around AD 1000, a period known as the “Iranian Intermezzo”, when parts of the region were governed by a number of minor Iranian emirates.
The first cluster consists of 25 wells on a linear alignment connected to an adjacent 10 metre deep water channel. The second cluster also has 25 wells and is connected to a 13 km long hand dug channel, while the third cluster consists of 9 wells connected to water canals dug on both sides.
Header Image Credit : State Board of Antiquities & Heritage
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists have discovered a 16,800-year-old Palaeolithic dwelling in the La Garma cave complex, located in the municipality of Ribamontán al Monte in Spain’s Cantabria province.
The La Garma cave complex is a parietal art-bearing paleoanthropological cave system on the southern side of the La Garma Hill.
The cave complex is noted for one of the best preserved floors from the Palaeolithic period, containing more than 4,000 fossils and more than 500 graphical units.
A project led by Pablo Arias and Roberto Ontañón from the University of Cantabria has recently announced the discovery of a Palaeolithic dwelling within the cave system, described as “one of the best preserved Palaeolithic dwellings in the world.”
The dwelling is an oval space and is delimited by an alignment of stone blocks and stalagmites that supported a fixed structure of sticks and skins leaning against the cave wall. The total area of the space is around 5 square metres that centred on a camp fire.
Archaeologists also found vestiges of various daily activities associated with Magdalenian hunters and gatherers at the dwelling, including evidence of stone manufacturing, bone and antler instruments, and the working of fur.
In total, over 4,614 objects have been documented, such as dear, horse and bison bones, 600 pieces of flint, needles and a protoharpoon, shells of marine mollusks, as well as numerous pendants worn by the cave dwelling inhabitants.
Additionally, the researchers also found a number of decorated bones, including a remarkable pierced aurochs phalanx engraved with a depiction of both the animal itself and a human face—a distinctive artefact unique to the European Palaeolithic era.
Due to the national importance of the discovery, the team used innovative non-intrusive techniques in their study of the dwelling. This includes continuous tomography of the soils, 3D cartography, the molecular and genetic analysis of soils and Palaeolithic objects, mass spectrometry, and hyperspectral imaging.
Header Image Credit : University of Cantabria
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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