Archaeology
Researchers reconstruct face of Inca girl sacrificed at volcano
Researchers from the University of Warsaw and the Catholic University of Santa María have reconstructed the face of an Inca girl sacrificed near the crater of Ampato, a dormant volcano in the Andes of southern Peru.
The frozen remains of the girl were discovered by archaeologists in 1995 at a height of 6,318 metres above sea level. She was found wrapped in a bundle that had fallen from an Inca site due to recent ice melt. At the time, the researchers name her “Lady of Ampato,” who had been sacrificed on the summit around 500 years ago to the Inca gods.
Child sacrifice, referred to as capacocha or qhapaq hucha, was an important part of the Inca religion. The Inca believed that the sacrificed children do not truly die, but instead watch over the land from their mountaintop perches alongside their ancestors.
Accompanying the girl to the afterlife was 37 funerary offerings, such as aríbalos type containers for liquids, llama bones, small figurines, and ceramics decorated with geometric designs. Also uncovered was preserved food items such as maize kernels and cob.
28 years after the discovery, a team of researchers have reconstructed the girls features in a hyper-realist sculpture. This was done based on the tomography of the body, DNA studies, ethnological characteristics, age, and the girl’s complexion.
The tomographic analysis revealed that the girl was between 13 and 15 years old at the time of death, where she received a blow to the right occipital part of the skull. All this information allowed Dr. Oscar Nilson, Swedish archaeologist and plastic artist, to apply the Manchester technique to construct the face of the Inca girl.
Scientist Dagmara Socha, archaeologist from the team at the Center for Andean Studies in Warsaw, said: “The construction of the face of the Inca girl was very emotional, because it is as if this minor who lived 500 years ago had been resurrected.”
Catholic University of Santa María
Header Image Credit : Catholic University of Santa María
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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