Archaeology
Tomb found on Great Pyramid at Huaca Pucllana
In a press announcement by the Ministry of Culture of Peru, archaeologists have discovered a tomb on the Great Pyramid at Huaca Pucllana, located in the Miraflores district of central Lima, Peru.
Huaca Pucllana is an adobe and clay pyramid complex that served as an important ceremonial and administrative centre for the Lima Culture, a pre-Inca people that emerged in the Peruvian Central Coast between AD 200 to AD 700. The pyramid is built with seven staggered platforms, surrounded by a plaza or central square, and evidence of various small clay structures and huts made of adobe.
Archaeologists excavating the top platform have uncovered a pit-type tomb with a circular plan, containing the remains of a single individual buried in a flexed sitting position and facing south. A preliminary study suggests that the individual was an adult, however, the researchers are yet to perform an anthropological analysis to determine the sex and cause of death.
According to the press release, the tomb is a burial from the Ychsma Culture, also known as the Ichma Culture, a pre-Inca indigenous polity that emerged around AD 1100 following the collapse of the Wari Empire.
The tomb at Huaca Pucllana – Image Credit : Peruvian State
The Ychsma Culture was known for remodeling existing pyramids from other cultures, such as Huaca Mateo, Huaca San Borja, Huaca Csa Rosada, Huaca Huantinamarca, Huaca San Miguel, and Huaca Pucllana where the recent tomb discovery was made.
Excavations of the tomb have also discovered funerary offerings made of ceramic vessels, including a pot decorated with abstract and geometric zoomorphic motifs, and a pitcher decorated in a geometric tricolor style on a red base.
“Until 2015, the Ychsma presence was known through offerings made with human hair in mates or wrapped in achira leaves that they left in different areas of this esplanade, even in the cracks,” said Mirella Ganoza, discoverer of the tomb.
Header Image – Huaca Pucllana – Image Credit : Shutterstock
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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