Archaeology
Hunter-gatherer communities used controlled fires 11,000-years-ago
Human hunter-gatherer communities were using controlled fires 11,000-years-ago to create open clearings to hunt wild grazing animals.
In a study led by the University of Barcelona (UB) and IPHES-CERCA, researchers analysed soil samples from Laguna de Villena on Spain’s southeastern Costa Blanca.
The team carried out a study on the geochemistry and sedimentary carbon content of the soil and pollen remnants. This investigation unveiled proof of controlled burning in the area during the Mesolithic era, which was likely done to alter the landscape, potentially with the goal of establishing open clearings and pastures to lure wild game for hunting.
Previously, it was believed that this practice began only during the Neolithic period around 9,000 years ago and didn’t become widespread until the Iron Age, approximately 3,000 years ago.
Abundant fuel sources were available due to the proliferation of oak and holm oak trees during a temperate and wet climatic phase. This climate likely facilitated the settlement of hunter-gatherer communities in the region, as the lagoon environment provided a diverse ecosystem for their sustenance.
The research highlights the alteration of the landscape by Mesolithic societies and a gradual aridification following a cooling climatic event 8,200 years ago. This combination disrupted the ecological equilibrium, signifying a significant shift in vegetation dynamics. Oak groves never regained their once-dominant position in the landscape, leading to the establishment of a new equilibrium characterised by the prevalence of pine forests and vegetation better suited for arid conditions.
Dr. Jordi Revelles, from the IPHES: “Despite the frequent consideration of a lesser capacity of hunter-gatherer communities in the transformation of the landscape, this work highlights the active role of the Mesolithic populations of the southeastern peninsula in the fire regime to favour open spaces in the forests”.
From the Neolithic onwards, the lower availability of fuel caused by the aridity and by agricultural and pastoral work translated into a lower intensity of fires.
Header Image Credit : Shutterstock
Archaeology
Ornate grave goods found in Murom burial ground
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
Archaeology
Ghastly finds at gallows execution site
![](https://conspirazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/gast2-S78Iej.jpeg)
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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