‘Rare’ 7,000-year-old bottle — with a mysterious purpose — unearthed in tomb in China
Aspen Pflughoeft
Fri, December 29, 2023
Buried in an ancient tomb in China sat a small, distinctly shaped bottle. The 7,000-year-old bottle might look simple, but it held a mystery.
Archaeologists uncovered the bottle while excavating a tomb in the Peiligang site, according to a Dec. 25 news release from the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China Archaeology Network.
The roughly 4-inch-long bottle has a small mouth at the top and pointed end at the bottom, the release said. A photo shows the almost teardrop-shaped bottle.
Similarly shaped bottles have been found before and are considered a representative artifact of the prehistoric Yangshao culture. These pottery pieces have been found in houses, ash pits and tombs — but their purpose is a source of debate.
Archaeologists believe these ancient bottles might have been used as water carriers, during brewing and winemaking, or for burials.
The “rare” bottle found at the Peiligang site is unique because of its abnormally small size and its age, according to an article from the People’s Daily Online, a Chinese government-run news outlet. Researchers initially estimated the bottle to be about 7,700 years old, the “earliest dated artifact of its kind in China.”
The Peiligang site is considered “one of the birthplaces of Chinese agricultural civilization,” the People’s Daily Online reported. The settlement is between 7,600 and 8,000 years old.
Archaeologists also found stone relics, fragments of ostrich eggs and other artifacts at the site, the release said. Excavations are ongoing.
The Peiligang site is in Xinzheng, Henan Province, and about 410 miles southwest of Beijing.
48 human remains — some with sharpened teeth and modified skulls — found in Mexico
Brendan Rascius
Fri, December 29, 2023
A massive gravesite — dating back at least 1,300 years — was unearthed in central Mexico, offering a glimpse into the cultural practices of the region’s pre-Hispanic occupants.
The remains of 48 individuals were found buried beneath tombstones in Tula, located about 75 miles northwest of Mexico City, according to a Dec. 21 news release from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Many of the individuals were buried in a seated position and oriented toward the sunrise or sunset, and some of them displayed signs of body modification, officials said.
For example, the incisors of one individual were filed down to have sharpened points, while the individual’s canines contained holes.
Some of the skulls showed evidence of cranial modification, a practice once carried out by various pre-Hispanic groups.
Also found at the gravesite was a cache of various artifacts — likely offerings — including ceramic pipes, seashell earrings and weapons, officials said.
A young male was buried wearing a necklace fashioned from 29 snails, which resembled the fangs of a carnivorous animal, officials said. Also located with his remains were two obsidian knives, which were likely placed inside of a bag.
Over a dozen hearths unearthed nearby allowed researchers to conclude the site was used by Pueblito and Huasteca groups between 250 and 650 A.D. — well before the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 16th century.
This time frame encompasses the Early and Middle Classic periods, which saw the flourishing of various indigenous communities in Mexico, including the Mayan in Teotihuacán, according to the American Museum of Natural History.
Google Translate was used to translate a news release from INAH.
Aspen Pflughoeft
Fri, December 29, 2023
While plowing a field in western Slovakia, a farmer hit a “rock.” This wasn’t the first time the annoying “rock” had gotten in his way, but he decided it was going to be the last time. He started digging — and found an unusual World War II artifact.
As the farmer in Kostolná-Záriečie dug, a circular concrete structure started to emerge, the Monument Office of the Slovak Republic said in a Dec. 11 news release.
Photos shared by the village of Chocholná-Velčice in an Oct. 17 Facebook post show the excavation process. The partially buried object looks almost like a crater.
The partially buried machine gun nest found in a field in Kostolná-Záriečie.
Officials identified the farmer’s find as the bottom half of a machine gun nest used by the Nazi German military during World War II. These machine gun nests were also known as a kugelstand and kugelbunker.
The machine gun nest as it was dug up from a field in Kostolná-Záriečie.
These defensive structures were made of reinforced concrete and had a spherical shape with a hole on top. They were used as shelters and firing points for machine guns or other infantry soldiers, the release said. A photo shows what the machine gun nest would have looked like while in use.
The World War II machine gun nest after being fully excavated.
In 1945, near the last few months of World War II, the village of Chocholná-Velčice was located along the front lines for about two weeks, the Facebook post said. The Nazi German army defended the village from advancing Soviet-Romanian armies before finally retreating. During this time, the German military fortified their position with machine gun nests.
Metal detectorists searched the field in Kostolná-Záriečie but did not find any other artifacts, the release said. The lack of any findings suggests that this machine gun nest probably wasn’t an active firing location.
At some point after World War II, the upper part of the machine gun nest was destroyed, possibly because it disrupted plowing, officials said. The underground structure was forgotten — until now.
The inside of the World War II machine gun nest after being fully excavated.
Officials estimate that up to a thousand machine gun nests were used by Nazi German forces in Slovakia during World War II. After the war ended, some structures were destroyed, others left in place and some reused as flower pots, playground equipment or other objects.
The machine gun nest from Kostolná-Záriečie was relocated to the Trenčín Museum, the release said.
Kostolná-Záriečie is about 70 miles northeast of Bratislava and near the Slovakia-Czechia border.
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