Archaeology
Archaeologists find 1700-year-old trident
A team of archaeologists from the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University have uncovered a 1700-year-old trident in the ancient city of Assos.
Assos was an Ancient Greek city located on the Aegean coast in the present-day Çanakkale province of Turkey. The city was founded by Aeolian colonists between 1000 to 900 BC, emerging as a major centre of philosophy under the school of Aristotle.
According to Christian tradition, St. Paul visited the city during his third missionary journey (AD 53-57 AD) through Asia Minor on his way to Mytilene. Acts 20 records that Luke the Evangelist and his companions (‘we’) “went ahead to the ship and sailed [from Troas] to Assos, there intending to take Paul on board … and when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene”.
Recent excavations have unearthed a trident harpoon among pieces of a collapsed vault from a Nymphaion, a structure used for distributing water typically from aqueducts.
Trident’s served various purposes, such as spearfishing, and its historical use as a polearm. In classical mythology, the trident is associated with Poseidon in Greek mythology and Neptune in Roman mythology, symbolising their dominion over the sea.
In Ancient Rome, tridents were also used by a type of gladiator called a retiarius or “net fighter”. The retiarius was traditionally pitted against a secutor, and cast a net to wrap his adversary and then used the trident to spear them.
According to the researchers, the trident is made from iron and dates from around 1700-1800-years-ago. Such discoveries are rare, which are normally found in contemporary depictions on ceramics and frescos showing fisherman harpooning fish with tridents.
According to Prof. Dr. Arslan, there is evidence of iron working at Assos, so its possible that the object may have been produced locally. Because iron objects generally oxidise, the discovery is the first example found by archaeologists during their excavations at Assos.
The object has been sent for preservation by separating the soil or oxidised parts, and then will have protective materials applied to present further oxidation of the iron.
Header Image Credit : Çiğdem Münibe Alyanak
Archaeologists from the University of Warwick are conducting an underwater study to document the submerged Mesolithic site of Bouldnor Cliff before it vanishes due to erosion.
Bouldnor Cliff is situated in the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the southern coast of England. The site was first discovered in 1999 when divers observed a lobster discarding worked flint tools from its burrow on the seabed.
At a time when Britain was cut off from mainland Europe by rising sea levels, the area of the Solent was a river valley inhabited by an advanced Mesolithic community who developed a boat building technology 2,000 years ahead of their time.
The study aims to find new data on the nature of the late Ice Age environment during the development of the Mesolithic era, and the extent of the interaction between the inhabitants of Bouldnor Cliff and Europe, including the exchange of materials.
Professor Robin Allaby, who is leading the expedition, said: “This is an incredible opportunity to understand the lost world in which the Mesolithic developed using the latest techniques before our chance is gone.”
The study will involve a comprehensive palaeoenvironmental analysis, in addition to state-of-the-art techniques such as optical simulated luminescence for constructing ecological profiles. Furthermore, archaeologists intend to recover archaeological artefacts and environmental markers to reconstruct the past environment.
Dr Kinnaird adds: “This is an exciting research project to showcase the new innovations in luminescence dating, which can tell when an object was last exposed to the Sun. The relevance of this technique in writing the narratives for 4000 years of history, at the time that the British coastline was rapidly changing, is huge!”
According to the researchers, these discoveries carry the potential to significantly transform our comprehension of the era when Britain emerged as an island.
Header Image Credit : University of Warwick
Sources : University of Warwick
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
A study of the “Excalibur” sword found in Valencia has been revealed to have Islamic origins sometime during the 10th century AD.
Valencia is one of the oldest cities in Spain, founded under the name of Valentia Edetanorum by the Romans in 138 BC.
The city was conquered by the Moors in the 8th century AD, and was destroyed by Abd al-Rahman I of the Umayyad dynasty. Under Caliphate rule, the wider city area became known as Madînat al-Turâb (meaning “city of earth” or “sand”).
The sword was discovered back in 1994 in a house on Valencia’s Historiador Chabàs Street, where it was found standing upright in a grave beneath an Islamic era house.
Dubbed “Excalibur” due to the circumstances of its discovery, the sword is made from iron and has a hilt decorated with bronze plates. In mythology, Excalibur was the legendary sword of King Arthur and appears in various medieval poems describing Arthur pulling the sword from a stone.
However, the “Excalibur” from Valencia was found in a sedimentary strata from the 10th century AD and was likely the weapon of a cavalryman from the Andalusian Caliphate Era.
According to the archaeologists, the sword measures 46 centimetres in length and has a slightly curved blade towards the tip. Swords from this period are rarely found well-preserved due to the levels of oxygen and water in the soil that causes oxidation of the iron.
“It is the first Islamic sword that appears in the city of Valencia, with only one similar example being found during the excavations of Medina Azahara, the caliphal city of Abd al-Rahman III, in Córdoba,” said the Valencia City Council.
Header Image Credit : The Archaeology Service (SIAM) of the Valencia City Council
Sources : Valencia City Council
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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