Archaeology
Giant petroglyph carving found hidden under moss in Sweden
Archaeologists from the Foundation for Documentation of Bohuslän’s Rock Carvings have discovered a giant petroglyph carving in the Swedish province of Bohuslän.
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading as a form of rock art.
Previous studies suggest that the tradition of carving petroglyphs was evidence for religious practices, however, more recent research proposes that they are not only depictions of cultic rituals but also as source material for cultural history and social hierarchies.
The archaeologists were surveying a rock slab in a farm pasture when they noticed a tiny part of a ship beneath layers of moss.
Image Credit : Foundation for Documentation of Bohuslän’s Rock Carvings
Removing the moss revealed a 15-metre-long petroglyph consisting of 40 figures showing ships, horses, people, and chariots. In total, the researchers have identified thirteen ships, nine horses, seven people, and four chariots.
“These are very large things, including a two-metre ship and a person over one metre in height. The figures are well carved and deep. The motifs are not unique, but the location on an almost vertical outcrop is unusual”, says archaeologist Andreas Toreld.
The carving has been dated to around the 7th–8th centuries BC during the peak of petroglyph carving in the Nordic Bronze Age.
Bohuslän has a high concentration of similar petroglyphs, where examples of people, agriculture and stock raising, hunting and fishing, cult and religion (e.g. the Sun cross), carts, ships, and weapons can be found throughout the province.
Due to the linear alignment of the figures, the researchers suggest that they were carved by artisans while stationary on a boat. At the time, the outcrop was part of an island, in which the petroglyph was carved just above the waterline that was darkened by cyanobacteria.
Foundation for Documentation of Bohuslän’s Rock Carvings
Header Image Credit : Foundation for Documentation of Bohuslän’s Rock Carvings
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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