Archaeology
Study uncovers new evidence supporting Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis
The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) proposes that a cometary or meteoric body exploded over the North American area sometime around 12,900-years-ago.
Proponents of this theory suggest that the event triggered the Younger Dryas (YD) cooling period at the end of the Last Glacial Period, leading to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna and the decline of the Clovis archaeological culture.
One of the obvious arguments against the YDIH is the apparent lack of craters from the time of the impact. However, according to a new study published in the Science Open Journal – “As of now, we don’t have a crater or craters,” said Christopher Moore, an archaeologist at the University of South Carolina and an author of the study.
Computer simulations have shown that a comet could explode before reaching the ground, creating a shock wave capable of widespread impacts without leaving a distinct crater in the planet’s geology.
According to Moore, minerals and artefacts found in the soil strata from the YD period are “proxies” of a comet strike—findings that are not direct evidence, but which do tell a story.
This is supported by ice cores from Greenland, in which the study has found elevated levels of combustion aerosols that indicate a massive prehistoric fire occurred at the start of the YD.
Supporting Moore’s argument are traces of platinum in sites across Syria and South Carolina, a rare metal but abundant in comets, and microscopic balls of iron called “microspherules” at various locations across the globe, suggesting some ancient event transported melted iron on a global scale.
A more recent discovery involves “shock-fractured quartz” found in South Carolina, Maryland and New Jersey. The minerals have microscopic cracks where quartz morphed into melted silica through a significant impact event.
Excavations of the YD period layer at all three locations have revealed significantly higher quantities of shock-fractured quartz, platinum, and microspherules, compared to soil strata from earlier and later periods.
According to the study: “This was the first time that shock-fractured quartz has been found at the YD depth at multiple sites. But it’s also one of the first studies to look for shock-fractured quartz, so additional samples may surface in more widespread studies.”
Moore’s findings suggest that a comet struck the earth, scattered minerals far and wide, and caused a massive fire that could have consumed the plants eaten by giant mammals, while the smoke resulting from the fire could have triggered a period of global cooling, namely, the YD.
Header Image Credit : Shutterstock
Sources : University of South Carolina | Christopher R. Moore, Malcolm A. LeCompte and James P. Kennett et al. Platinum, shock-fractured quartz, microspherules, and meltglass widely distributed in Eastern USA at the Younger Dryas onset (12.8 ka). Airbursts and Cratering Impacts. 2024. Vol. 2(1). DOI: 10.14293/ACI.2024.0003
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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