Archaeology News Thread

[Bed$tuy🇭🇹]

When you go back far enough, everyone was black (i.e. dark skinned). They believe the gene for light skin first appeared around 40K years ago, but it's not like it appeared and then instantly everyone in a certain region was light. Evolution doesn't work like that. It would have taken 10s of thousands of years for certain traits to win out through natural selection. So when we're talking about some of these civilizations that started 5000+ years ago, it's a good chance that most of them were started by black people simply because lighter people didn't even exist in high proportions in certain regions.

Derived SLC24A5-AA has been naturally selected for 99% of pale skin Europeans and was discovered in Satsurblia Cave Georgia.

Africans have the Ancestral Version which is SLC24A5-GG

There's other depigmentation alleles like OCA2, HERC2, SLC45A2, and KITLG but

Non of them has the significance of SLC24A5-AA

Months ago we talked about Cheikh Anta Diop and his influences.
You told me you did an essay on him In college

He has a specific book in French talking about the Natufians. He confirmed that the Natufians that Dorothy Garrodd discovered were African with Dolichocephalic Skulls with high melanin content.

White Academia called him pseudo and unreliable.
Fast forward they biting his style and confirming what he already said.

 

[The Lonious Monk]

Derived SLC24A5-AA has been naturally selected for 99% of pale skin Europeans and was discovered in Satsurblia Cave Georgia.

Africans have the Ancestral Version which is SLC24A5-GG

There's other depigmentation alleles like OCA2, HERC2, SLC45A2, and KITLG but

Non of them has the significance of SLC24A5-AA

Months ago we talked about Cheikh Anta Diop and his influences.
You told me you did an essay on him In college

He has a specific book in French talking about the Natufians. He confirmed that the Natufians that Dorothy Garrodd discovered were African with Dolichocephalic Skulls with high melanin content.

White Academia called him pseudo and unreliable.
Fast forward they biting his style and confirming what he already said.

The science has come a long way as far as being controlled by racist narratives. Racists are still among today's scientists of course, but their word isn't taken as gospel anymore.

 

[SeaSnake]

Thanks for this thread

 

[Bed$tuy🇭🇹]

Ancient Roman graveyard — with over 1,400 tombs — unearthed in France. Take a look



When archaeologists began excavating a plot of land in Narbonne, France, they quickly uncovered dozens of ancient Roman burials. That was just the beginning.

Seven years and over 1,400 tombs later, their work has finally finished.

The result? An extraordinarily detailed account of life and death in a typical ancient Roman graveyard.

The ancient Roman empire conquered modern-day France in 125 B.C., named it Gaul and set up Narbonne as their first colony, according to the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research. Situated on the Mediterranean Sea, ancient Narbonne thrived and quickly became one of the largest ports in the area.


To match its growing population, Narbonne needed a similarly sized graveyard. A burial district was set up on the outskirts of town around 100 A.D., the institute said in an April 17 news release. Ancient Romans continued using and expanding the graveyard until around 300 A.D.

When modern-day archaeologists excavated the site, the graveyard spanned about 54,000 square feet and included 1,430 tombs and 450 other structures.

Most of the ancient Romans buried in the cemetery were from the lower class, archaeologists said. Surviving tombstones indicated the deceased were freedmen of Italian origin, plebeians or commoners and enslaved people.

The vast majority of graves were cremations where the deceased was burned on a pyre before being buried in a stone, glass or pottery container, the institute said.

In the remaining graves, the deceased person was simply buried. There were about 260 of these burial-style graves, half belonging to children, the institute said.

A child’s burial-style grave found in Narbonne

 

[Bed$tuy🇭🇹]

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh's Fortified Royal Retreat

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an ancient Egyptian fortified royal retreat.

The mud-brick rest house was uncovered at the archaeological site of Tel Hebwa in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MTA) announced in a statement

Preliminary research at the site has indicated that the structure dates back to the reign of King Thutmose III, the sixth pharaoh of ancient Egypt's 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom period.

Sometimes called Thutmose the Great, the pharaoh is thought to have ruled from 1479 B.C. until his death at the age of 56 in 1425 B.C. He is regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history, helping to expand Egypt's empire to its greatest extent thanks to a succession of victorious campaigns.

The archaeological site of the fortified royal retreat found in northern Sinai, Egypt. Preliminary research indicates that the site dates to the reign of King Thutmose III, one of Egypt's greatest military commanders.

It is likely that the ancient building in Sinai was used as a royal rest house thanks to the architectural layout and the scarcity of pottery shards found inside, according to the MTA. The pharaoh himself may have used the facility during his military campaigns to expand the Egyptian empire to the east, researchers believe.

The building consists of two consecutive rectangular halls, accompanied by a number of rooms. It appears to have been fortified with a perimeter wall.

"This discovery is pivotal as it illuminates crucial aspects of Egypt's military history, particularly in the Sinai region, during the New Kingdom era," said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, as reported by Ahram Online.

Archaeological work at the site also uncovered a number of burials, indicating that it was used as a cemetery during later periods in ancient Egyptian history.

 

[Bed$tuy🇭🇹]

Archaeologists Find Rare Item Worth More to Romans Than Its Weight in Gold

An incredibly rare Roman-era object—made from a substance that was once worth more than its weight in gold—has been discovered at an archaeological site in the United Kingdom.

The item was unearthed during excavations conducted in 2023 by archaeologists and volunteers at the site of a Roman bathhouse located within the grounds of a sports club in the city of Carlisle, northern England

Testing of the lump—made from a soft, mysterious, purple substance—subsequently revealed that it contained beeswax and an element known as bromine. This is a strong indication that it represents a solid sample of Tyrian purple—a man-made pigment that was highly valued in the ancient world.

The dye, which is purple in color, is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails that are found in the Mediterranean region. Producing Tyrian purple was an extremely difficult task. The process was complex and required the collection of thousands of marine snails. In fact, it is estimated that it up to 12,000 individual mollusks would need to be processed to produce just 1 gram of dye.

The sample of Tyrian purple found at the archaeological site of a Roman bathhouse in Carlisle, England. Tyrian purple was a highly valued pigment in the ancient world.

As a result, it was extremely expensive during Roman times, to the extent that it was worth more than gold, pound-for-pound. The pigment was generally reserved f

For millennia, Tyrian purple was the world's most expensive and sought after color," Frank Giecco, an archaeologist with mining consultancy company Wardell Armstrong, which has been involved in excavations at the Carlisle site, said in a press release.

Finding a solid sample, such as the one from Carlisle, is a particular unusual find, according to Giecco.or use by the upper echelons of society.

"It's the only example we know of in Northern Europe—possibly the only example of a solid sample of the pigment in the form of unused paint pigment anywhere in the Roman Empire," Giecco said in the release. "Examples have been found of it in wall paintings (like in Pompeii) and also some high status painted coffins from the Roman province of Egypt.

Tyrian purple is thought to have first been manufactured in the 2nd millennium B.C. by the Phoenicians—an ancient civilization of the Mediterranean region that originated in the coastal Levant region, primarily in an area that is now occupied by modern Lebanon.

The purple pigment was most famously produced in Tyre—a city located in Lebanon that is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world. However, it was also manufactured in other regions of the Mediterranean, such as North Africa.

The Tyrian purple sample from Carlisle was likely used for painting frescos, Sarah Irving, a spokesperson for Cumberland Council, which has partnered with Wardell Armstrong on the excavation project, told Newsweek.

Sometimes the pigment was used to paint walls in grand public buildings, as well as the homes and properties of the elite. However, it was also used to dye clothes.

 

[Bed$tuy🇭🇹]

An ancient manuscript up for sale gives a glimpse into the history of early Christianity

The Crosby-Schoyen Codex at Christie’s auction house in Paris. The manuscript goes up for auction in London on June 11, 2024.

An important piece of early Christian history, the Crosby-Schøyen Codex, is up for auction at Christie’s in London. This codex is a mid-fourth century book from Egypt containing a combination of biblical and other early Christian texts.

The Crosby-Schøyen Codex was discovered alongside more than 20 other codices near Dishna, Egypt, in 1952. These manuscripts are collectively known as “the Dishna Papers” or “the Bodmer Papyri,” after the Swiss collector Martin Bodmer.

Though often overshadowed by other 20th century discoveries, this trove of ancient manuscripts represents one of the most significant finds for understanding the history of early Christianity. As an expert on early Christian reading practices, I consider the Dishna Papers an invaluable witness to the formation of the Christian Bible. This ancient library shows how, before the consolidation of the Bible, early Christians read canonical and non-canonical scriptures – as well as pagan classics – side by side.

An overshadowed discovery

The middle decades of the 20th century were exciting years for scholars of early Christianity.

In 1945, a collection of 13 ancient codices was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These contained dozens of otherwise unknown works, mostly associated with minority and marginalized forms of early Christianity. With titles like “The Gospel of Thomas” and “The Secret Revelation of John,” this cache of non-canonical scriptures captured the public’s imagination and inspired a bestseller.

Codices found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The Gnostic Society Library

The very next year, Bedouin shepherds discovered ancient Hebrew scrolls hidden in a cave at Qumran on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.

The “Dead Sea Scrolls” found in this and a dozen subsequently discovered caves constituted a massive library of Jewish texts, including biblical works and hitherto unknown texts with remarkable parallels to the writings of the New Testament. This find was celebrated in news stories, documentaries and other publications as among the greatest discoveries of the 20th century.

At the very same time, the Dishna Papers were discovered, smuggled out of Egypt and sold to European collectors with considerably less fanfare. No headline hailed the discovery of the Dishna Papers. Instead, pieces of this collection were sold to the highest bidders, scattering the ancient library across the globe.

The Dishna Papers

Though less exotic than Nag Hammadi or Qumran, the contents of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex and the 20-some additional codices discovered near Dishna have proved every bit as important for our understanding of early Christianity.

Two manuscripts of the canonical gospels, Luke and John, belonging to this ancient library predate almost every other surviving copy of these gospels. Scholars used these new manuscripts to revise the text of the New Testament.

For instance, the vast majority of manuscripts of the Gospel of John describe Jesus as “the only-begotten Son” (1:18). But the early manuscripts discovered at Dishna read “the only-begotten God.” Here and elsewhere, English translations of the Bible were changed to reflect the contents of the Dishna Papers.

But the library discovered near Dishna did not consist entirely of texts that ended up in the Christian Bible. Scriptures that were not included in the Christian canon, like Paul’s “Third Letter to the Corinthians” and “The Shepherd of Hermas,” were also found among the Dishna Papers.

One codex from Dishna contains the “Acts of Paul,” an extra-Biblical account of Paul’s travels and martyrdom. Another contains the “Infancy Gospel of James,” a non-canonical story about the life of Mary, Jesus’ mother. The discoveries at Dishna provide evidence that these writings, though unfamiliar to modern readers of the Bible, spent centuries on the periphery of Christian scripture.

The Dishna Papers included a few additional literary texts. One codex in this mostly Christian library contains several comedies by the Hellenistic playwright Menander. Another codex binds together a chapter of Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” with a Greek version of the biblical Book of Daniel.

Evidently, the owner of this Christian library had no aversion to the arts and sciences of pre-Christian Hellenism. In this library, pagan classics and Christian scripture stood side by side.

But whose library was this?

The Crosby-Schøyen Codex, written in Coptic, on papyrus. The Schøyen Collection

The Crosby-Schøyen Codex, which is now up for sale, actually supplies several important clues to the origin of the Dishna Papers with which it was found.

Thanks to recent radiocarbon dating of this codex and the contents of a closely related manuscript, the Crosby-Schøyen Codex can be dated with some measure of confidence to the middle of the fourth century – roughly 325 to 350 C.E.

The Crosby-Schøyen Codex itself contains five texts in Sahidic Coptic, a dialect of the ancient Egyptian language. Three texts are Biblical: Jonah, Second Maccabees 5:27-7:41, and 1 Peter. The rest of the codex contains part of a well-known Easter homily and a brief otherwise unknown exhortation.

These texts, argue scholars Albert Pietersma and Susan Comstock, may have been collected into a single codex for use as an Easter lectionary. A lectionary is a collection of readings used in Christian worship services. Such lectionaries were used in Pachomian monasteries, like the one located only a few miles west of Dishna.

This monastery was established in the mid-330s by Pachomius, the reputed founder of communal monasticism. His Pachomian Rule, by which the monks would have ordered their communal life, makes frequent reference to the public and private use of books. Pachomius’ monasteries even taught illiterate monks to read.

It seems likely that this eclectic library of canonical and non-canonical scriptures, early Christian writings and pagan classics belonged to these book-loving monks in central Egypt. One of the Pachomian rules allowed monks to borrow books from the monastic library for up to one week.

Today, for a few million dollars, one such book can be yours forever. On June 11, 2024, the Crosby-Schøyen Codex will go to the highest bidder.