Archaeology
Maya sacrificial victim uncovered wearing jade ring
Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have uncovered a Maya burial containing the remains of a human sacrifice still wearing a jade ring.
The discovery was made during excavations in the Maya city of El Tigre, also known as Itzamkanac (meaning “the place of the lizard serpent”), which is located in the Mexican state of Cameche near the Rio Candelaria.
El Tigre was first inhabited during the Middle Preclassic (600 – 300 BC) until around AD 1557 following the Spanish conquest. The city served as the polity of the Acalán Maya, a subgroup of the Chontal Maya or the Putún Maya.
According to some historians, El Tigre was the location where Cuauhtémoc, the last free ruler of the Aztec Empire, was executed on the orders of Hernán Cortés.
Image Credit : INAH Campeche
Recent excavations at platform 1E, located to the west of the main pyramid temple, have revealed the remains of a human funerary offering placed in a ceramic vessel as part of a ritual deposit alongside other large vessels and ceramic bowls.
An examination of the skeleton indicates that it was a young adolescent placed in a flexed position, who was sacrificed and buried sometime during the Late Classic Period (AD 600 – 800) while still wearing a jade ring.
Jade was a rare and valued material in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. This meant that Jade was largely an elite good and highly symbolic beyond its material worth. Jade was associated with the sun and the wind, but it was also symbolically associated with life and death, and therefore possessed high religious and spiritual importance during ceremonies.
Excavations at El Tigre were conducted as part of the Mayan Train Project for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico.
Header Image Credit : INAH Campeche
A groundbreaking study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, has revealed why the largest concentration of pyramids in Egypt were built along a narrow desert strip.
Since the beginning of the Pharaonic era, the Nile River has played a fundamental role in the rapid growth and expansion of the Egyptian civilisation.
The Nile provided sustenance and functioned as the primary mode of transportation for goods and building materials, which explains why most of the main cities of the Egyptian civilisation were built in close proximity to the banks of the Nile and its peripheral branches.
Over the centuries, the primary channel of the Nile shifted laterally, causing these peripheral branches to silt up. As a result, population centres were cut off from the vital resources the river provided.
Image Credit : Eman Ghoneim et al
This is apparent with the pyramids along the Western Desert Plateau, where a majority of the pyramids are concentrated along a narrow desert strip several kilometres from the current primary channel of the Nile.
Using a combination of radar satellite imagery, geophysical data, and deep soil coring, the study has investigated the subsurface structure and sedimentology in the Nile Valley adjacent to the pyramid clusters.
This has revealed an extinct branch of the primary channel called the Ahramat Branch, which was connected to the pyramids of the Old and Middle Kingdoms via causeways and their Valley Temples.
According to the study authors: “The Ahramat Branch played a role in the monuments’ construction and was simultaneously active and used as a transportation waterway for workmen and building materials to the pyramids’ sites.”
The eastward migration and abandonment of the Ahramat Branch could be attributed to gradual movement of the river to the lower-lying adjacent floodplain or tilting of the Nile floodplain toward the northeast as a result of tectonic activity, as well as windblown sand incursion due to the branch’s proximity to the Western Desert Plateau.
Header Image Credit : Eman Ghoneim et al
Sources : Ghoneim, E., Ralph, T.J., Onstine, S. et al. The Egyptian pyramid chain was built along the now abandoned Ahramat Nile Branch. Commun Earth Environ 5, 233 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01379-7
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the National Institute of Cultural Heritage have uncovered a Roman villa with an indoor plunge pool during excavations at the port city of Durrës, Albania.
During antiquity, Durrës was founded by Ancient Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra.
The colony emerged into a major trading centre, which during the Roman period was annexed into the expanding territory of the Roman Republic following the conclusion of the Illyrian Wars.
By the 4th century, the city (named Dyrrachium), emerged as the capital of the Roman province of Epirus nova, covering the region of Ancient Epirus.
Image Credit : IKTK
Archaeologists excavating a former residential part of the ancient city have uncovered a high status Roman villa that dates from between the 1st and 4th century AD.
The villa interior contains an indoor pool, richly decorated with frescoes on the walls and mosaic flooring with tiles and inlays of marble, stone, glass and ceramics. Located adjacent to the pool are shallow square basins lined with waterproof mortar, believed to be the remains of an ancient water feature.
Within the northern area of the excavation site, archaeologists found a large brick floor from a thermae, a Roman bath, and further traces of walls from the wider complex.
In the western area, the team discovered fragments of relief stucco that was used to decorate the walls and ceilings of the villa. The reliefs depict anthropomorphic and floral motifs, further indicating the wealth of the villa inhabitants.
According to the archaeologists, the villa was destroyed by an earthquake in the 4th century, corresponding with ancient sources that describe a powerful earthquake causing buildings to collapse and the city defences to crumble.
Header Image Credit : IKTK
Sources : National Institute of Cultural Heritage
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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