Archaeology
Archaeologists find Muromian burial ground in Muroma
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, working on behalf of the Volga Expedition, have uncovered a Muromian burial ground on the left bank of the Oka River in the city of Muroma.
The Muromians are generally described as a Volga-Finnic people that lived in the Oka River basin in Russia’s present day Vladimir Oblast. The Muromians paid tribute to the Rus’ princes and, like the neighbouring Merya tribe, were assimilated by the East Slavs in the 11th to 12th century AD as their territory was incorporated into the lands of the Rus’.
Excavations have uncovered the remain of 13 individuals, most of which are predominantly male inhumation burials oriented to the north. Among the male burials are associated grave goods consisting of weapons such as spears, axes and ice picks, in addition to coins (dirhams) and 5 lead weights.
In one notable burial are high status items such as an axe, a spear, a knife, a cauldron made of non-ferrous metal, four bronze bracelets and two silver rings. Also in the burial is a belt plaque made of white metal covered in gilding and a beaver tail bag containing two dirhams. According to the researchers, the find is comparable to Hungarian-type belts found over a wide area from the Perm Kama region to the Carpathian basin.
Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
A closer study of the dirhams (an Islamic currency), places the coins to the beginning of the 10th century AD when dirhams were commonly used in Europe and are found in areas with Viking connections, such as Viking York and Dublin.
Deposited to the left of the burial are items of women’s jewelry, including pendants from a headdress, Muromian temporal rings, a Glazov-type torc, bracelets, and an openwork belt buckle.
Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Archaeologists from Cotswold Archaeology are excavating the crash site of a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress in an English woodland.
The B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC).
The bomber was mainly used in the European theatre for daylight strategic bombing, complimenting the RAF Bomber Command’s night bombers in attacking German industrial, military and civilian targets.
Cotswold Archaeology have been tasked by the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency to search the crash site for the remains of the pilot, who died when the B-17 crashed following a system failure in 1944.
Image Credit : Cotswold Archaeology
At the time, the plane was carrying a payload of 12,000lbs of Torpex, an explosive comprised of 42% RDX, 40% TNT, and 18% powdered aluminium. Torpex was mainly used for the Upkeep, Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs, as well as underwater munitions.
The pilot was declared MIA when the plane exploded into an inferno, however, using modern archaeological techniques, the researchers plan to systematically excavate and sieve the waterlogged crash site to recover plane ID numbers, personal effects, and any surviving human remains.
It is the hope of the excavation team members that they will be able to recover the pilot’s remains and return him to the United States for burial with full military honours.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense whose mission is to recover unaccounted Department of Defense personnel listed as prisoners of war (POW) or missing in action (MIA) from designated past conflicts.
Header Image Credit : Cotswold Archaeology
Sources : Cotswold Archaeology
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists excavating at the ancient Tharsa necropolis have uncovered a Roman Era tomb guarded by two carved bull heads.
Tharsa is located near Kuyulu village in southeastern Turkey along the Adıyaman-Şanlıurfa Highway.
The site was situated on a major Roman highway from Doliche to Samosata, which today consists of a two settlement mounds and a large necropolis that dates from the 3rd century to the Byzantine period.
Excavations first commenced in 2021 which discovered a collection of Turuş Rock Tombs, a type of tomb construction carved directly into the bedrock.
In the latest season, archaeologists have excavated another Turuş Rock Tomb, however, this example was found to have two carved bull heads which is decorated with garlands and rosettes between the horns.
Bull heads, known as Bucranium, were a form of carved decoration commonly used in Classical architecture. In Ancient Rome, bucrania were often used on the friezes of temples in the Doric order of architecture, later influencing the architecture of buildings from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical periods.
Architectural examples of bucrania are representations of the practice of displaying garlanded, sacrificial oxen, whose heads were displayed on the temple walls.
Like similar Turuş Rock Tombs, the bull heads are carved directly into the bedrock, guarding a dozen rock cut steps descending into the burial chamber which has three arched niches known as acrosolia.
Mustafa Çelik, Deputy Director of Adıyaman Museum, said, “Tharsa Ancient City consists of 3 main archaeological areas: Big Mound, Small Mound and Necropolis Area. We started excavations in the necropolis area in 2024. We added 2 more rock tombs to the rock tombs we had previously uncovered. One of them is the rock tomb we identified today.”
Header Image Credit : Adıyaman Museum
Sources : Adıyaman Museum
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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