This undated photo issued on Thursday Nov. 25, 2021 by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services shows a Roman mosaic unique to Britain and depicting one of the most famous battles of the Trojan War. Nearly a decade on from uncovering the remains of King Richard III under a car park near Leicester Cathedral, the university's archaeological team have unearthed a Roman mosaic featuring the great Greek hero of Achilles in battle with Hector during the Trojan War — this time in a farmer's field in Rutland, England. (University of Leicester Archaeological Services via AP)
PAN PYLAS
Thu, November 25, 2021
LONDON (AP) — A team of archaeologists from the University of Leicester in central England certainly appear to have the golden touch.
Nearly a decade on from uncovering the remains of King Richard III under a car park near Leicester Cathedral, the university's archaeological team have unearthed a Roman mosaic featuring the great Greek hero of Achilles in battle with brave Hector during the Trojan War — this time in a farmer's field about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of London.
The mosaic is the first depiction ever found in the U.K. of events from Homer's classic 'The Iliad.'"
John Thomas, deputy director of University of Leicester Archaeological Services and project manager on the excavations, said the mosaic says a lot about the person who commissioned it in the late Roman period, between the 3rd and 4th century.
“This is someone with a knowledge of the classics, who had the money to commission a piece of such detail, and it’s the very first depiction of these stories that we’ve ever found in Britain,” he said. “This is certainly the most exciting Roman mosaic discovery in the U.K. in the last century."
In light of its rarity and importance, Britain's Department of Culture, Media and Sport on Thursday granted the mosaic the country's oldest form of heritage protection. It is now a scheduled monument, which makes it a criminal offense for anyone to go digging around the site or even metal-detecting.
“By protecting this site we are able to continue learning from it, and look forward to what future excavations may teach us about the people who lived there over 1,500 years ago,” said Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England.
The mosaic in the county of Rutland was found by Jim Irvine, whose father Brian Naylor owns the land, in the midst of last year's lockdown during excavations of an elaborate villa complex made up of a host of structures and other buildings. Irvine then notified the authorities, leading to an excavation by the university's archaeological team.
He described how what started as “a ramble through the fields with the family” led to the “incredible discovery."
“The last year has been a total thrill to have been involved with,” he said.
The archaeologists discovered remains of the mosaic, measuring 11 meters (36 feet) by almost 7 meters (22.9 feet). Human remains were also discovered in the rubble covering the mosaic and are thought to have been interred after the building was no longer occupied.
The dig, which remains on private land, has now been back-filled to protect the site and work will continue to potentially turn over the field to grassland to lower the risk of future damage from ploughing.
There's little time for the team at the university to rest up following their latest excavation success. In January, they are due to start digging near Leicester Cathedral, in what is expected to be the city's deepest ever excavation, in the hope of finding long-lost treasures from medieval times and ancient times.
The team is best-known for its search of the lost grave of Richard III, which began in August 2012. In February of the following year, the university announced that they had found the remains of England's last Plantagenet king and the last English monarch to have died on the battlefield. He died in 1485.
Archaeologists find 800-year old mummy in Peru
Fri, November 26, 2021,
LIMA (Reuters) - A team of experts has found a mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old on Peru's central coast, one of the archaeologists who participated in the excavation said on Friday.
The mummified remains were of a person from the culture that developed between the coast and mountains of the South American country. The mummy, whose gender was not identified, was discovered in the Lima region, said archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna.
"The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be part of the local funeral pattern," said Van Dalen Luna, from the State University of San Marcos.
The remains are of a person who lived in the high Andean region of the country, he said. "Radiocarbon dating will give a more precise chronology."
The mummy was found inside an underground structure found on the outskirts of the city of Lima. In the tomb were also offerings including ceramics, vegetable remains and stone tools, he said.
Peru - home to tourist destination Machu Picchu - is home to hundreds of archaeological sites from cultures that developed before and after the Inca Empire, which dominated the southern part of South America 500 years ago, from southern Ecuador and Colombia to central Chile.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Fri, November 26, 2021,
LIMA (Reuters) - A team of experts has found a mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old on Peru's central coast, one of the archaeologists who participated in the excavation said on Friday.
The mummified remains were of a person from the culture that developed between the coast and mountains of the South American country. The mummy, whose gender was not identified, was discovered in the Lima region, said archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna.
"The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be part of the local funeral pattern," said Van Dalen Luna, from the State University of San Marcos.
The remains are of a person who lived in the high Andean region of the country, he said. "Radiocarbon dating will give a more precise chronology."
The mummy was found inside an underground structure found on the outskirts of the city of Lima. In the tomb were also offerings including ceramics, vegetable remains and stone tools, he said.
Peru - home to tourist destination Machu Picchu - is home to hundreds of archaeological sites from cultures that developed before and after the Inca Empire, which dominated the southern part of South America 500 years ago, from southern Ecuador and Colombia to central Chile.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Discovery of 2,100-year-old fortress bears witness to historic holiday of freedom, Hanukkah
Brad Bloom
Thu, November 25, 2021,
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When I lived in Israel many years ago as a student studying to become a rabbi, our class participated in an archaeological dig in the Negev desert. We were supervised by world class archaeologists at the biblical town of Aroer, east of the Dead Sea on the north bank of the River Arnon (See Deuteronomy 2:36).
With specific tools we dug down each day into the mounds of history. As we excavated the site, we discovered artifacts from different time periods. We unearthed pre-Roman pottery shards and pieces of Roman glass, among other finds. One of the greatest lessons was touching remnants of the Biblical past and using tools to bring to light the memory of our biblical ancestors.
Now news reports from Israel bring us another major archaeological discovery, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Israeli archaeologists unearthed a 2,100-year-old fortress that may provide evidence of and corroborate the historic holiday of Hanukkah, which begins Sunday night.
The Israeli Antiquities department announced that this fortress was constructed by the Greek Seleucid Empire post 556 BCE (Before Common Era) to protect Maresha, a biblical iron age city. The evidence of ancient artifacts demonstrates that the Jewish rebellion against the Greek occupation of ancient Judea in 165 BCE led to an attack against the fortress and the eventual defeat of the Greek encampment.
The Maccabee family formed an insurgency to expel the Seleucid Greek forces from the entirety of Judea, and when they succeeded in 165 C.E., they reconquered Judea and reestablished the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. They became the Hasmonean dynasty and ruled Judea under the Romans until about the first century of the Common Era.
After the Maccabees and their forces retook Jerusalem, they lit the Menorah in the Temple. The oil, which was supposed to last one night, lasted eight.
To this day Jewish families worldwide display in their windows a facsimile of the menorah, dedicated to and in remembrance of the miracle of the oil lasting eight nights.
The fact that we will one day be able to visit an actual fortress where archaeologists say that the Hasmoneans fought and defeated the Greeks fortifies the historic basis of this famous holiday.
The truth is that Hanukkah is not just about a miracle of a menorah or candelabra that stayed lit in the temple for eight nights.
Hanukkah has always been a holiday about the fight for freedom and self determination of the fate of the Jewish people — and to throw off the yoke of the Seleucids, who had turned the Temple into a Greek pagan temple.
The word Hanukkah means to rededicate, and that is exactly what the victors did when the land of Judea, including the Temple, returned to Jewish sovereignty.
The Israeli archaeological achievements — like this one and the Dead Sea Scrolls and many more — corroborate the presence of the Jewish people in ancient Judea, which would one day be called Israel.
It is one thing to read in the Sacred Scriptures or post biblical ancient texts such as the Book of Maccabees about events that were recorded for future generations.
It is another to actually stand in a place and see where people lived in those times. One can imagine by looking at the artifacts of pottery, coins, weapons and wooden beams how our forbearers lived and how they fought heroically for freedom.
Hanukkah has become a major holiday in American life. Not everyone knows the actual history, but they know about the Menorah story and the giving of gifts and the spinning of the dreidel.
It’s also important that the history is being resurrected before our eyes. The archaeologists in Israel are modern-day detectives of ancient history who uncover it, bring it to our attention and prompt our spiritual awareness of Jewish history.
When I read about the archaeological discoveries, I recall the dreidel, which on each side of the spinning top has a letter that represents the phrase, “A great miracle happened there.”
Modern Israelis changed one letter on the traditional spinning top of the dreidel to say “here” instead the word “there.” The events happened in Israel, so saying “here” makes total sense if one lives in Israel.
Maybe the miracle is not simply the menorah. It’s also seeing how the artifacts of this history still bear witness to ancient Israelite and Jewish traditions. Could that be the miracle this year on Hanukkah?
History matters.
Happy Hanukkah.
When I lived in Israel many years ago as a student studying to become a rabbi, our class participated in an archaeological dig in the Negev desert. We were supervised by world class archaeologists at the biblical town of Aroer, east of the Dead Sea on the north bank of the River Arnon (See Deuteronomy 2:36).
With specific tools we dug down each day into the mounds of history. As we excavated the site, we discovered artifacts from different time periods. We unearthed pre-Roman pottery shards and pieces of Roman glass, among other finds. One of the greatest lessons was touching remnants of the Biblical past and using tools to bring to light the memory of our biblical ancestors.
Now news reports from Israel bring us another major archaeological discovery, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Israeli archaeologists unearthed a 2,100-year-old fortress that may provide evidence of and corroborate the historic holiday of Hanukkah, which begins Sunday night.
The Israeli Antiquities department announced that this fortress was constructed by the Greek Seleucid Empire post 556 BCE (Before Common Era) to protect Maresha, a biblical iron age city. The evidence of ancient artifacts demonstrates that the Jewish rebellion against the Greek occupation of ancient Judea in 165 BCE led to an attack against the fortress and the eventual defeat of the Greek encampment.
The Maccabee family formed an insurgency to expel the Seleucid Greek forces from the entirety of Judea, and when they succeeded in 165 C.E., they reconquered Judea and reestablished the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. They became the Hasmonean dynasty and ruled Judea under the Romans until about the first century of the Common Era.
After the Maccabees and their forces retook Jerusalem, they lit the Menorah in the Temple. The oil, which was supposed to last one night, lasted eight.
To this day Jewish families worldwide display in their windows a facsimile of the menorah, dedicated to and in remembrance of the miracle of the oil lasting eight nights.
The fact that we will one day be able to visit an actual fortress where archaeologists say that the Hasmoneans fought and defeated the Greeks fortifies the historic basis of this famous holiday.
The truth is that Hanukkah is not just about a miracle of a menorah or candelabra that stayed lit in the temple for eight nights.
Hanukkah has always been a holiday about the fight for freedom and self determination of the fate of the Jewish people — and to throw off the yoke of the Seleucids, who had turned the Temple into a Greek pagan temple.
The word Hanukkah means to rededicate, and that is exactly what the victors did when the land of Judea, including the Temple, returned to Jewish sovereignty.
The Israeli archaeological achievements — like this one and the Dead Sea Scrolls and many more — corroborate the presence of the Jewish people in ancient Judea, which would one day be called Israel.
It is one thing to read in the Sacred Scriptures or post biblical ancient texts such as the Book of Maccabees about events that were recorded for future generations.
It is another to actually stand in a place and see where people lived in those times. One can imagine by looking at the artifacts of pottery, coins, weapons and wooden beams how our forbearers lived and how they fought heroically for freedom.
Hanukkah has become a major holiday in American life. Not everyone knows the actual history, but they know about the Menorah story and the giving of gifts and the spinning of the dreidel.
It’s also important that the history is being resurrected before our eyes. The archaeologists in Israel are modern-day detectives of ancient history who uncover it, bring it to our attention and prompt our spiritual awareness of Jewish history.
When I read about the archaeological discoveries, I recall the dreidel, which on each side of the spinning top has a letter that represents the phrase, “A great miracle happened there.”
Modern Israelis changed one letter on the traditional spinning top of the dreidel to say “here” instead the word “there.” The events happened in Israel, so saying “here” makes total sense if one lives in Israel.
Maybe the miracle is not simply the menorah. It’s also seeing how the artifacts of this history still bear witness to ancient Israelite and Jewish traditions. Could that be the miracle this year on Hanukkah?
History matters.
Happy Hanukkah.
