Archaeology
Celtic ritual lake discovered in Poland
Archaeologists from the University of Warsaw have discovered a ritual lake associated with the Celtic peoples.
The Celts are groupings of Indo-Europeans who shared a common language, religious beliefs, traditions, and culture.
The nature of the relationships between the various groups remains unclear, and the term is now generally used to refer to “speakers of Celtic languages” rather than a single ethnic group in current scholarship.
The first recorded use of the term dates to the early 6th century BC, when the Greek geographer, Hecataeus of Miletus, refers to the people living near Massilia (modern Marseille) as the Κελτοί (Keltoi) in Ancient Greek.
“Celt” is actually a modern English name, introduced in the 1707 writings by Edward Lhuyd, who argued that the Brythonic language from Gaul and the Goidelic language from the Iberian Peninsula were of “Celtic” origin.
Archaeologists from the University of Warsaw recently announced the discovery of a ritual lake associated with the Celtic peoples in north-central Poland.
The discovery of the ritual site was the result of a previously uncovered 3rd century sword kept in the collection of the Land Forces Museum in Bydgoszcz. Researchers from the University of Warsaw contacted the finder, leading archaeologists to a lake somewhere in the historic Kuyavia region.
Excavations have unearthed sickles, fragments of iron sword sheaths, and several chain belts, which were ritually deposited in the lake during the 3rd century BC.
Bartosz Kontny, dean of the faculty of archaeology at the University of Warsaw, explained that the discovery is the first example of a ritual lake associated with the Celtic peoples found in Poland
“No one expected the Celts this far north back in the third century BC. Until now, it had been thought that Celtic settlements in present-day Poland reached the Kuyavia region only in the first century BC,” added Kontny.
Due to the significance of the discovery, the exact location of the lake is being kept confidential to prevent disturbance and illegal looting.
Header Image Credit : Miron Bogacki
Sources : PAP
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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